Section: 3C - Constantine and the following years.
Number of quotes: 582
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
Roger Crowley
Book ID: 2 Page: 9
Section: 3C
STOPPED AT "A PUBLIC FAITH", NOTES, WHERE I MARKED IT. 7/25/23.O Christ, ruler and master of the world, to You now I dedicate this subject city, and these sceptres and the might of Rome. Inscription on the column of Constantine the Great in Constantinople.
Quote ID: 4
Time Periods: 47
2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity
Eddie L. Hyatt
Book ID: 3 Page: 33/34
Section: 3C
[used in the Introduction] Constantine became directly involved in the affairs of the church, thereby setting the stage for the amalgamation of the powers of the church and state. In A.D. 325, for example, he called the first General Council of the Christian Church. Bishops from all parts of the empire convened in Nicea, a city in Asia Minor, at government expense. Constantine himself presided over the first session, and in later sessions he intervened at significant points in the discussions even though he had not yet been baptized. Kung says:Constantine used this first council not least to adapt the church organization to the state organization. The church provinces were to correspond to the imperial provinces, each with a metropolitan and a provincial synod. In other words, the empire now had its imperial church!{1}
Constantine also initiated the building of facilities to accommodate the religious gatherings of Christians. Prior to this, believers had met primarily in homes. Constantine, however, erected buildings in which the church was to meet. These he modeled after the architecture of the civic auditoriums of the day. This architecture, with its elevated throne-like seating at the front for the bishop and its rows of seating for the congregation, made significant congregational involvement impractical. In addition, the liturgy and worship style, once plain and personal, were now adorned with the pomp and practice of the Imperial court. {2}
Quote ID: 20
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 26
Section: 3C
Actually, Christian emblems appear on Constantine’s coins perhaps as early as 313 or at the latest 315, in striking conjunction with his portrait as conquering warrior: to the left of the imperial bust, helmeted and cuirassed, is a cross surmounted by a globe; the helmet bears the monogram of Christ; to the right is the head of a horse. Nevertheless, until 317, and again as late as 325, three-fourths of the coins minted by Constantine continued to be dedicated to “the Unconquerable Sun, his companion,” Soli Invicto Comiti, while Christian symbols occasionally appear on the reverse.{7}
Quote ID: 30
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 26/27
Section: 3C
On the Arch of Constantine in Rome, which commemorates his 312 triumph, it is neither Jupiter, the old conventional patron of Rome, nor Christ, already the quasi-official Savior, but Apollo the Sun God who is in the foreground, as the god of the army and of the prince. The inscription on the arch, as ecumenical as anyone could wish, attributes the victory to “the inspiration of the divinity,” instinctu divinitatis, and, equally important, to the ruler’s noble soul.{8}The scales were thus approximately balanced.
Quote ID: 31
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 28
Section: 3C
As Cyril Mango points out, around 328 Constantine had himself portrayed in his capital, on the top of a porphyry column, wearing the radiate crown of the Sun God. He went even farther, by having a Capital constructed in the city, that is, a temple dedicated to the triad Jupiter-Juno-Minerva, and the “essential symbol of Romanness.”{11}
Quote ID: 32
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 29
Section: 3C,2E1
The same intention of exploiting for his own purposes the magical power of ancient statues can be seen in Constantine’s decision to use for the representation of the emperor on the top of his porphyry column a statue of Apollo from Ilium (Troy), whose head was recarved for the occasion. Apollo had been the great defender of Troy (whose heir, via Aeneas, Rome considered itself); and as the Sun God, he protected Constantine.2E1
Similarly, the palladion was transferred from Rome to Constantinople. This relic, said to have been brought to Italy from Troy by Aeneas, was a very old statue of Athena, which made impregnable any city that possessed it.{15}
Quote ID: 34
Time Periods: 04
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 32
Section: 3C
It is in this context that a pagan sanctuary in Mamre (in Judaea, near Hebron) was destroyed: the oak under which the three angels of God, or rather God Himself accompanied by two angels, appeared to Abraham was the object of a cult, like many other sacred trees, for pagans as well as Jews and Christians. Constantine ordered the pagan altar to be razed to the ground and the idols that profaned the place to be burned.{24}
Quote ID: 36
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 37
Section: 3C,4B
Constantius did not hesitate to call upon the services of eminent pagans, orators in particular. In 341, at the inauguration of the “great church” that Constantius had built in Antioch, a pagan sophist, Bemarchius, delivered the official speech in praise of the edifice. We know this from his colleague and rival Libanius, who reproached him for it. Libanius’ irritation was provoked more by professional rivalry than religious scruples. At the beginning of his stay in Constantinople, he himself had offered a panegyric to Constantius, who greatly appreciated it.
Quote ID: 40
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 38/39
Section: 3C,4B
In 357, during his visit to Rome, Constantius had the altar of Victory removed from the Senate.{2} The altar was erected in front of a statue of the goddess commemoration the victory of Constantine over Maxentius; that remained in place.
Quote ID: 41
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 57
Section: 3C,4B
Gratian surpassed his predecessor by eliminating the pensions paid by the imperial treasury to pagan priests, and by refusing to fill vacant positions in the sacerdotal colleges. When a deputation of senators came to ask him to rescind those measures and to remind him that officially he was the chief of the State cults---probably around the beginning of 383---he refused to receive them and with great ostentation dropped the title of pontifex maximus. These gestures marked a “separation between paganism and the State.”{1}
Quote ID: 42
Time Periods: 4
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 115
Section: 3C
[Used the Bold]Far more significant for the future was the Christian absorption of pagan culture. It took place of course in the capital, Constantinople, but found more fertile ground elsewhere.
But above all it was Gaza, not so long ago a bastion of paganism, that became a center of Christian teaching of rhetoric, thanks to one of its natives, Procopius.
Procopius was a cleric, versed in theology, who knew Plato well and argued with Procius. He was the inventor of “exegetic chains,” . . .
Quote ID: 52
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 16/17
Section: 1A,2B2,3C
The story that Constantine experienced a vision of the cross in the sky prior to battle {3} is in other versions presented as a vision of the pagan Sun-god. This deity was certainly of enduring importance to him. The coins he issued in his early years as emperor included images of Sol Invictus, “the Unconquered Sun,” as well as symbols of various other pagan gods, and the still-extant triumphal arch later erected in Rome to celebrate his victory over Maxentius also depicts Sol Invictus as Constantine’s protector and refers simply to “the Divinity,” unspecified. When in 321 Constantine declared the first day of the week as a public holiday (or at least a day when nonessential labor was discouraged and public institutions such as the law-courts could be open only for the charitable purpose of freeing slaves), his stated reason was not to facilitate Christian worship or practice as such but to respect “the venerable day of the Sun.”If there is any truth in the account of Constantine’s vision of the cross, it is conceivable that he somehow associated a personal guardian deity, the Sun-god, with the God of the Christians.
….
Christian preachers had often connected the notion of Christ as the light of salvation with the nature of the sun as the source of human light, and there had long been popular rumors that Christians were involved in a version of sun-worship because they met together on Sundays. A mosaic from the late-third- or early-fourth-century tomb found under St. Peter’s in Rome expressly depicts Christ as Apollo the Sun-god in his chariot, and Constantine utilized an image of Apollo in a public statue of himself in his new city of Constantinople on the Bosphorus. For Constantine, the amalgamation of the conventional symbolism of his preferred deity with the doctrine of the Christian God may have been quite easy.
….
Did Constantine genuinely become Christian or not? Some interpreters believe he never became a true disciple of Christ but simply chose to exploit the significance of Christianity within the Roman world for his own ends. The consequences of his actions, it is said, were disastrous for the spiritual integrity of the church and rendered its doctrine and practice liable to political pressures and cultural fads in ways that have never been entirely undone, even in the 20-first century.
Quote ID: 127
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 19
Section: 3C
If Constantine became a Christian in 311 or 312, he did not allow it entirely to revolutionize his behavior with regard to traditional religion. His coinage over a number of years continued to depict pagan deities; he retained the pagan high priest’s title of Pontifex Maximus, held by all emperors since Augustus; and he did little if anything to curtail the imperial cult. It appears that he came to deplore animal sacrifices and to favor the appointment of Christian officials who would not perform such rites, but there is no evidence that he discontinued them. As his legislation about Sunday indicated, even his pro-Christian actions could appeal to non-Christian ideas.Pastor John’s note: Good Summary
Quote ID: 128
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 20
Section: 3A4,3A4C,3C
The clergy were exempted from civic duties and from taxation. Bishops were allowed to adjudicate in various civil cases, and it became possible legally to free slaves before the church in the presence of a bishop. For the first time, Christian pastors were appointed as military chaplains. The church was allowed to receive legacies from rich individuals.
Quote ID: 129
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 21
Section: 2E3,3C
Constantine devoted large sums of money to the rebuilding of churches after the ravages of the persecutions, and he financed the copying of the Scriptures in the aftermath of the widespread destruction of sacred texts.
Quote ID: 130
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 23
Section: 2E3,3C
While he had shown tolerance to Christians before and after 313 and had taken a Christian wife, Licinius did not share Constantine’s enthusiasm for wholehearted favoritism towards the churches, and once the two had parted company, Licinius came to regard Christian leaders as partisans of his enemy. He was not mistaken, for Constantine actively sought to enlist Eastern bishops in support of his political cause.Licinius’s anti-Christian measures slowly became intense, and in the end, they provided Constantine with a pretext for a showdown.
….
Constantine had achieved his self-professed mission as one called by God to reunite the empire. All the imperial subjects were called upon to worship the one true God.
The new city would contain no temples but was to have a number of churches, the most splendid of which would be the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Sancta Sophia), adjacent to the imperial palace, symbolizing the essential relationship between the emperor and the church.
Quote ID: 131
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 24
Section: 3A4B,3C
Constantine did not visit Rome after 326,….
The emperor’s last trip to Rome had been filled with unpleasantness, and quarrels within his household had led to the execution of both his son Crispus and his second wife, Fausta. Fausta’s palace on the Lateran was handed over to Silvester, the bishop, to serve as his official residence.{5} Henceforth, the most important man in Rome, it seemed, was the city’s bishop.
Quote ID: 132
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 25/26
Section: 3A4,3C,4B
Constantine’s generosity brought its own problems, however. In North Africa the emperor found rival Christian claims for his favors.….
In Constantine’s world, however, differences of this kind were affected by a potent new factor – the prospect of imperial patronage for those who could persuade the civil authorities that theirs was the true position. For centuries Christians had appealed to emperors, but never before had the prospects of success involved the political rewards that were now at stake.
Quote ID: 134
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 46
Section: 3C,4B
STOPPED HERE GOING THROUGH CONSTANTINE 7/25/23In the world after Constantine, the manner in which these questions were dealt with could no longer take the forms that might have been assumed in previous ages. A new age of high-profile theological politics had begun.
Quote ID: 150
Time Periods: 4
A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Book ID: 10 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Constantine intended his empire to be divided between his dynastic heirs. As well as his three sons—Constantine II, Constantius, and Constans—there were also two nephews, but after his death these nephews and all other potential bidders for power were swiftly removed in a bloody military purge, leaving control entirely with the sons.
Quote ID: 151
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 46/47
Section: 2B2,3C
The support of the gods was always essential, and Constantine himself told of a vision of Apollo who, accompanied by the goddess Victoria, promised him a reign of thirty years. Apollo was represented by images of the sun, and this underpinned Constantine’s association with the cult of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. On a coin minted in 313, Constantine is shown alongside Apollo with the latter wearing a solar wreath.
Quote ID: 179
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Later Constantine told of the cross he had seen in the sky and claimed the support of the Christian God for his success. A separate account told how he had had a dream in which he was commanded to put a sign of Christ on his soldier’s shields.
Quote ID: 180
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Few moments in history have been more endlessly discussed. There is no evidence that Constantine became any more pious or less brutal in either his public or private life after his victory, so was this a genuine conversion, and if so what did Constantine mean by it? How did his adoption of Christianity affect his relationship with the other gods he had shown allegiance to? The ambiquity became clear when a new triumphal arch decreed by the Roman Senate in Constantine’s honour was unveiled in 315; in its surmounting inscription, it attributed the victory of the Milvian Bridge to ‘divine inspiration’ and to Constantine’s ‘own great spirit’.
Quote ID: 181
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 48
Section: 2E3,3C
The one consistent theme in Constantine’s policy towards Christians is that he, rather than the Church, defined the relationship. He was, after all, offering a persecuted minority full membership of Roman society and he knew it would be dependent on him. More than this, he proclaimed that the clergy would now be exempt from taxation and civic duties so that ‘they shall not be drawn away by any deviation and sacrifice from worship due to the divinity …for it seems that, rendering the greatest possible service to the deity, they most benefit the state’. This is Constantine not so much humbling himself before God, as using the power of the Church to sustain his own rule.….
Constantine fostered the process by granting immense patronage to the Church in the shape of buildings,
….
In this way a pagan custom, the worship of gods through impressive buildings, was transferred successfully into Christianity.
Quote ID: 182
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 49
Section: 3A4C,3C
When Christianity became Constantine’s religion as the result of the apparent support shown for him by the Christian God at the Milvian Bridge, it meant accepting that God willed the rise to power of the emperor by means of bloody warfare.
Quote ID: 183
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 49
Section: 3A4,3C
Bishops had not supplanted the secular authorities, the local governors and prefects, in the cities, but they had often built up impressive networks through their congregations. While a provincial governor might stay in post for three or four years, bishops would be in office for twenty, even thirty, years.… .
A bishop with popular support could be a formidable figure, even able to challenge the will of an emperor.
Quote ID: 185
Time Periods: 34
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 50
Section: 3A3B,3A4,3C
We know of Constantine channelling corn and oil to the poor of Alexandria through the city’s bishop, and so, effectively merging the Christian duty to help the poor with the political need to prevent unrest by feeding the volatile population. In Constantinople, the Church was ordered to organize free funerals for the poor. Bishops were given the same rights as secular magistrates to free slaves. So the status of the bishop rose steadily.Within this framework, however, tensions between and within local Christian communities suddenly became important in a different way.
….
But now there might be two or more rival Christian communities in a city, each claiming the tax exemption and patronage of the emperor. Who were the ‘real’ Christians, and who decided this in any case?
Quote ID: 186
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 57
Section: 3C,4B
Constantine was trying to mould a Church of his own making and in doing so he had broken with much of Christian tradition. He bequeathed lasting tensions to the Church in the form of debates over the correct use of wealth (how much, for instance, should be diverted into showcase buildings), the relationship of Christians to war and imperial authority, and the nature of the Godhead itself.
Quote ID: 191
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 57
Section: 3A4,3C
The context within which the Church operated had been changed for ever. ‘The master narrative of Christianity would become so deeply implicated in the narrative of imperial power that Christianity and government would become inextricably linked.’20
Quote ID: 192
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 76/77
Section: 2E3,3C
The founding of Constantinople illustrates how Constantine, whatever his personal commitment to Christianity, distanced himself from the Church. The emperor himself inaugurated the building programme by marking the new limits of the city with a spear as in traditional Greek ritual.
Quote ID: 196
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 77
Section: 2B2,3C
Among the ceremonies of the official foundation on II May 330, a chariot bearing a statue of Constantine, which itself carried a statue of Tyche, ‘good fortune’ personified as a goddess, was paraded in the hippodrome, watched by the bejeweled emperor himself from the imperial box he had installed at the edge of the palace.
Quote ID: 197
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 77
Section: 2B2,3C
Constantine appears to have left Severus’ foundation intact and constructed, just outside its walls, an oval forum with a statue of himself in the guise of the sun god, Helios, placed on a column in the centre.
Quote ID: 198
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 77
Section: 2B2,3C
Churches were also built, but their dedications to Wisdom (Sophia), Peace (Eirene) and the ‘the Sacred Power’ suggest that Constantine was working with an imagery that was as much pagan as Christian.
Quote ID: 199
Time Periods: 4
A.D. 381 Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 11 Page: 77
Section: 3C,2D2
Constantine was stressing the ancient tradition of the supreme deity supporting the emperor – even if his own behaviour left it unclear whether this was Jupiter (or Apollo), an abstract Platonic principle, Helios (or Sol Invictus) or the Christian God. It was only after Constantine’s death that Constantinople became an unambiguously Christian city. The city’s cult of the ancient virgin goddess Rhea, left untouched by Constantine, gradually became transformed into that of the Virgin Mary. I
Quote ID: 200
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 261
Section: 3C1,3C
Then we could perhaps see clearly what we can now only surmise, namely, that virtually throughout his life Constantine never assumed the guise of or gave himself out as a Christian but kept his free personal convictions quite unconcealed to his very last days.….
It is highly probable that his treatment of Constantine is of a similar character, Then at least the odious hypocrisy which disfigures his character would disappear, and we should have instead a calculating politician who shrewdly employed all available physical resources and spiritual powers to the one end of maintaining himself and his rule without surrendering himself wholly to any party.
Quote ID: 9348
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 282
Section: 3C
Constantia, wife of Licinius and sister of Constantine, who came to the camp to negotiate, received assurances under oath that her husband’s life would be spared. Thereupon the old comrade-in-arms of a Probus and a Diocletian strode forth out of the city, bent his knee to the conqueror, and laid his purple aside. He was sent to Thessalonica, and Martinian to Cappadocia. But in the following year (324) Constantine found it more expedient to put them to death.
Quote ID: 9349
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 283
Section: 3C
To pass for a Christian would, indeed, have been a great presumption on his part. Not long after the Council of Nicaea he suddenly had Crispus, his excellent son by his first marriage and a pupil of Lactantius, put to death at Pola in Istria (326), and soon thereafter he had his wife Fausta, daughter of Maximian, drowned in her bath. The eleven-year-old Licinianus was also murdered, apparently at the same time as Crispus.
Quote ID: 9352
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 301
Section: 3C,3C1
We must not forget that among other things Constantine “put a great many of his friends to death,” as the unsuspicious Eutropius says, and the more than suspicious Eusebius finds it well to pass over in silence.
Quote ID: 9355
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 301/302
Section: 3C
It is precisely in the last decade of his life that Constantine gives certain very plain indications of un-Christian, even of directly pagan, sympathies. While he and his mother were ornamenting Palestine and the large cities of the Empire with magnificent churches, he was also building pagan temples in the new Constantinople.
Quote ID: 9356
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 302
Section: 3C
…the temple and image of Tyche, the deified personification of the city, was intended to receive an actual cult. At the consecration of the city certain occult pagan practices were demonstrably celebrated; the solemnities involved superstitions of all sorts, which later writers vainly seek to identify with Christian worship.To others also Constantine granted permission to build pagan temples.
Quote ID: 9357
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 371
Section: 2B1,3C
The century was eager to find a new home for its thoughts and aspirations.
Quote ID: 9359
Time Periods: 4
Age of Constantine the Great, The
Jacob Burckhardt
Book ID: 614 Page: 371
Section: 3C
In the case of Constantine the motive which impelled him to such expenditures was quite superficial. The highest spiritual value which he could perceive in reverence for holy objects was a sort of belief in amulets; he had the nails of the True Cross worked into a bit for his horse and a helmet for use in battle.
Quote ID: 9360
Time Periods: 4
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
John Henry Newman
Book ID: 324 Page: 239/240
Section: 2A5,3C
In the course of the fourth century two movements or developments spread over the face of Christendom, with a rapidity characteristic of the Church; the one ascetic, the other ritual or ceremonial. We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own.….
The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.
The eighth book of Theodoret’s work Adversus Gentiles, which is, “On the Martyrs,” treats so largely on the subject, that we must content ourselves with but a specimen of the illustrations which it affords, to the principle acted on by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus. “Time, which makes all things decay,” he says, speaking of the Martyrs, “has preserved their glory incorruptible. For as the noble souls of those conquerors traverse the heavens, and take part in the spiritual choirs, so their bodies are not consigned to separate tombs, but cities and towns have distributed them; and they call them saviours of souls and bodies, and physicians, and honour them as the protectors and guards of cities, and, using their intervention with the Lord of all, through them they obtain divine gifts.
….
But though all men made a jest of them, yet at least the Greeks could not decently complain, to whom belonged libations and expiations, and heroes and demi-gods and deified men. To Hercules, though a man, and compelled to serve Eurystheus, they built temples, and constructed altars, and offered sacrifices in honour, and allotted feasts; and that, not Spartans only and Athenians, but the whole of Greece and the greater part of Europe.”
….
I have given extracts from Theodoret for the developments of the fourth and fifth centuries….
Quote ID: 7775
Time Periods: 45
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 170
Section: 2E6,3C
The emperor at one time or another took to identifying himself with various gods - Apollo, Hercules, and Helios, deity of the sun - and coins were struck depicting him with a radiating crown.Emperor Constantine?
Quote ID: 283
Time Periods: 1
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 244
Section: 3C
He was - at least this is how he recounted it to the historian Eusebius - overtaken by a vision in the form of a cross in the sky, and a command that he go into battle under that sign. Whatever the source of his guidance, his troops put down Maxentius with the sign of Christ’s cross on their shields.
Quote ID: 313
Time Periods: 4
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 249
Section: 2B2,3C
This victory over Maxentius confirmed his devotion to Christianity. But to speak of the conversion of Constantine is to misunderstand the quality of his mind. He did not immediately try to impose the Christian faith on his subjects. He continued to celebrate pagan festivals, minted coins in honor of Apollo, Hercules, Mars, Jupiter, and even after his conversion, presented himself on coins wearing the spiked crown of sol invictus, the unconquered Sun. He was tolerant of all religions, and as Augustus had, he showed a special predilection for Apollo.
Quote ID: 316
Time Periods: 4
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 250
Section: 3C
How deeply Constantine believed in the tenets of Christianity is a question that has puzzled historians, as it may very well have puzzled Constantine himself. His complex mind appears to have been capable of believing simultaneously in the Christian God and the entire pagan tradition. He acknowledged a summus deus, a supreme god who ordered and commanded the entire universe, but beyond this, he apparently was not prepared to go, though he would pay lip service to Christ or to the unconquered Sun whom his father had worshiped. Toward the end of his life, he caused to be erected, near the Colosseum, a magnificent triumphal arch in his honor, bearing an inscription of the divine - instinctu divinitatis. Perhaps he was paying tribute to his own divinity or to all divinities. Certainly the ambiguous phrase does not reveal a special preference for the Christian God.Constantine was not, after all, so deeply interested in religion; what interested him almost to the exclusion of everything else was the exploration of power, and he realized very early that toleration was itself a form of power.
Quote ID: 317
Time Periods: 4
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 252
Section: 3A4,3C
Nevertheless his new religion gave the emperor the opportunity to announce that he was “ordained by God to oversee whatever is external to the Church” - a statement that was to have awesome consequences in the Middle Ages when emperors and popes struggled for supremacy.Yet Constantine also established a foundation for the papacy’s claims to temporal power when he gave the rights and duties of magistrates to all the bishops in his empire. Many of the bishops carefully searched their consciences before they agreed to accept the post, for Christian tradition, centuries old, looked on the state and all of its work as being corrupt. But finally, with gratitude, they assented to the change and regarded it as a sign of the new era that was dawning.
Constantine . . . he finally chose the old Greek fishing port of Byzantium, the junction of all the roads between Asia and the West. There on May 11, 330, in the presence of high ecclesiastical officials, the city of New Rome was formally inaugurated with great pomp. Christian commentators, who carefully noted the presence of the Churchmen, appear to have glossed over the fact that the ceremony was also pagan and modeled on the legendary inauguration of Rome by Romulus.
Quote ID: 319
Time Periods: 047
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 253
Section: 3C
Christianity, too, failed to unify Constantine’s domain. Even before he brought the new religion to dominance, the Church had been plagued with dissension, and its divisions often fell along social as well as doctrinal lines. In North Africa, one religious squabble aligned the old Berber and Punic elements in a bitter struggle against the Roman colonists. About the year 318 a more serious controversy erupted in Egypt, splitting the entire Church into factions that opposed each other in their political as well as their religious sphere.
Quote ID: 320
Time Periods: 4
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 3
Section: 3C
The third critical point in the history of early Christianity occurred when Christianity was thrust into the role of religion of the empire. This shift set the stage for the eventual development of a formal Christianity we call orthodoxy.
Quote ID: 446
Time Periods: 4
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 305
Section: 3C
Until Constantine [Christian names] were infrequent, because people were not particularly “born” Christian, or at least the tradition of the language filed was not yet set sufficiently to influence local people.
Quote ID: 7421
Time Periods: 234
Apostasy that Wasn’t, The: The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church
Rod Bennett
Book ID: 561 Page: 285
Section: 3C
But when he adopted it, it became the official religion of the Roman Empire; and when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it became as strong, as universal and as invincible as the Roman Empire.
Quote ID: 9243
Time Periods: 4
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 17
Section: 3C
His successor Constantine, as we shall see, was finally deified by a grateful senate.
Quote ID: 588
Time Periods: 4
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 245
Section: 3C
As emperor, however, he retained the old title of ponitfex maximus,{39} and as late as 326 he was willing to provide the Eleusinian dadouchos with transportation to sacred sites in Egypt.{40} A rescript issued as late as 333 shows that he accepted religious traditions in honor of his family. The citizens of Hispellum in Umbria had asked permission to honor the Flavian house by erecting a temple, providing a priest, and holding theatrical games and gladiatorial combats. Constantine approved their proposal, but he stipulated that “the temple dedicated to our name should not be defiled by the falsehoods of any contagious superstitions.”{41}[Footnote 39] ILS 695-97; 8941-42.
[Footnote 40] OGIS 721; date: J. Baillet in Comptes rendus de l’Acad. Des Inscriptions, 1922, 282-96.
[Footnote 41] ILS 705.
Quote ID: 656
Time Periods: 4
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 247
Section: 3C
[Bold parts used]The story of the Christian revolutionary movement may well end at this point, for the relation of Christianity to the society in which it was now established is another matter. The acceptance for which Christians had long been seeking had been achieved. Clement of Alexandria had believed that the iron-bronze state of the Greeks was inferior to the silver of the Jews and the gold of the Christians.{42} Now the golden age had dawned.
[Footnote 42] Clement, Str. 5, 98, I-4 (Plato, Rep. 5, 497 e). The question was politically important, for Commodus persuaded the senate to name his reign “The golden age” (Dio 72, 15, 6; cf. SHA Comm. 14, 3): Dio later noted the “golden kingdom” of Marcus Aurelius and the rusty iron of Commodus (71, 36, 4).
Quote ID: 657
Time Periods: 4
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 247
Section: 3C
We have already mentioned the fact that in 326 he informed the vicar of the diocese of the Orient that clerical privileges were to benefit only Catholic clergy. “It is our will, moreover, that heretics and schismatics shall not only be alien from these privileges but also shall be bound and subjected to various public services.”{43} In other words, an effort to harass non-Catholic clerics was to be made.[Footnote 43] Cod. Theod. 16, 5, I.
Quote ID: 659
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 3
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
Book I Prefatory PiecesParagraph I Ausonius to his Reader, Greeting
My father practised medicine - the only one of all the arts which produced a god;
Pastor John’s note: This is at the end of his life, long after he became a Christian.
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for J word
Quote ID: 2925
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 7
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
Book I Prefatory PiecesParagraph III A Letter of the Emperor Theodosius
The Emperor Theodosius to his father Ausonius, greeting.
My affection for you, and my admiration for your ability and learning, which could not possibly be higher, have caused me, my dearest father, to adopt as my own a custom followed by other princes and to send you under my own hand a friendly word. . .
Quote ID: 2926
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 9
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
Book I Prefatory PiecesParagraph IV To my Lord and the Lord of All, Theodosius the Emperor, from Ausonius, your Servant
If yellow Ceres should bid the husbandman commit seed to the ground, or Mars order some general to take up arms, or Neptune command a fleet to put out to sea unrigged, then to obey confidently is as much a duty as to hesitate is the reverse.
. . . .
Behests of mortals call for deliberation: what a god commands perform without wavering.
. . . .
It is not safe to disoblige a god;
Quote ID: 2927
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 17
Section: 2B1,3C,3C1,3D
Book II The Daily Round or the Doings of a Whole DayParagraph III The Prayer Line 6-12
He only may behold thee and, face to face, hear thy bidding and sit at thy fatherly right-hand who is himself the Maker of all things, himself the Cause of all created things, himself the Word of God, the Word which is God, who was before the world which he was to make, begotten at that time when Time was not yet, who came into being before the Sun’s beams and the bright Morning-Star enlightened the sky.
Quote ID: 2929
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 29
Section: 3C,3D,4B
Book II The Daily Round or the Doings of a Whole DayParagraph VIII Line 22
They say the heavenly bard {1}
. . . .
{1} sc. Virgil (Aen. vi. 282 ff.)
Quote ID: 2931
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 35
Section: 3C,3D,2A4
Book III Personal PoemsParagraph II Easter Verses Composed for the Emperor Line 1
Now return the holy rites of Christ, who brought us our salvation, and godly zealots keep their solemn fasts.
Pastor John’s note: No “J” word
Quote ID: 2932
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 37
Section: 3C,3D,2B2
Book III Personal PoemsParagraph II Easter Verses Composed for the Emperor Line 17
Thou, gracious Father, grantest to the world thy Word, who is thy Son, and God, in all things like thee and equal with thee, very God of very God, and living God of the source of life.
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2933
Time Periods: 34
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 49
Section: 3C,3D,2B2
Book III Personal PoemsParagraph V A Solemn Prayer of Ausonius as Consul-Designate, when he assumed the Insignia of Office on the Eve of the Kalends of January
Come, Janus; come, New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
soon to behold Ausonius enthroned in state, consul of Rome. What hast thou now beneath the Imperial dignity itself to marvel at? That famous Rome, that dwelling of Quirinus, and that Senate whose bordered roes glow with rich purple, from this point date their seasons in their deathless records.
Come, Janus; come, New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2934
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 63
Section: 3C,3D,2B2
Book IV ParentaliaParagraph IV Caecilius Argicius Arborius, my Grandfather Line 1-3
Forsake not your sacred task, my duteous page: next after these let me celebrate the memory of my mother’s father, Arborius
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2935
Time Periods: 34
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 65
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
Book IV ParentaliaParagraph IV Caecilius Argicius Arborius, my Grandfather Line 24
When you had lived a life of ninety years, you found how to be dreaded are the arrows of the goddess Chance. . .
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2936
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: 137
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
Book V Poems Commemorating The Professors of BordeauxParagraph XXV Conclusion Line 5-6
For the living praise is a lure: to but cry their names will satisfy those within the tomb {4}.
[Footnote 4] To call aloud upon the dead was a recognised funerary rite: see Virgil, Aen. vi. 507
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2937
Time Periods: 3
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: xiv
Section: 2B2,3C,3C1,3D
IntroductionFurther, the conception of the Deity held by Ausonius was distinctly peculiar - as his less guarded references show. In the Easter Verses (Domest. ii. 24 ff.) the Trinity is a power transcending but not unlike the three Emperors; and in the Griphus (1. 88) the “tris deus unus” is advanced to enforce the maxim “ter bibe” in exactly the same tone as that in which the children of Rhea, or the three Gorgons are cited: for our author the Christian Deity was not essentially different from the old pagan gods.
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2924
Time Periods: 4
Ausonius, LCL 115: Ausonius I, Books 1-17
Several
Book ID: 133 Page: xiii
Section: 2B2,3C,3D
IntroductionWhen and how he adopted the new religion there is nothing to show; but certain of his poems make it clear that he professed and called himself a Christian, and such poems as the Oratio (Ephemeris iii.) and Domestica ii., which show a fairly extensive knowledge of the Scriptures, sometimes mislead the unwary to assume that Ausonius was a devout and pious soul. But in these poems he is deliberately airing his Christianity: he has, so to speak, dressed himself for church. His everyday attitude was clearly very different.
....
Nor does Christianity enter directly or indirectly into the general body of his literary work (as distinguished from the few “set pieces”). In the Parentalia there is no trace of Christian sentiment - and this though he is writing of his nearest and dearest: the rite which gives a title to the book is pagan, the dead “rejoice to hear their names pronounced” (Parent. Pref. 11), they are in Elysium (id. xviii, 12) according to pagan orthodoxy; but in his own mind Ausonius certainly regards a future existence as problematical (Parent. xxii. 15 and especially Proff. i. 39 ff.).
PJ Note: Check Ausonius for the J word.
Quote ID: 2923
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 4
Section: 3C,3D
It is this story to which we are accustomed. Put briefly: the notion that a relatively short period (from the conversion of Constantine, in 312, to the death of Theodosius II, in 450) witnessed the ‘end of paganism’; the concomitant notion that the end of paganism was the natural consequence of a long-prepared ‘triumph of monotheism’ in the Roman world; and the tendency to present the fourth century AD as a period overshadowed by the conflict between Christianity and paganism - all this amounts to a ‘representation’ of the religious history of the age that was first constructed by a brilliant generation of Christian historians, polemicists and preachers in the opening decades of the fifth century.2Pastor John’s Note: This author uses the word “representations” in a special way- in reference to the way Christian writers of the 4th/5th saw events.
Quote ID: 673
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 12
Section: 2B2,3C
The drastic rearrangement of so many classical traditions in order to create a whole new heraldry of power was one of the greatest achievements of the late Roman period. Yet, it would be profoundly misleading to claim that changes in this large area of social and cultural life reflected in any way a process of ‘Christianization’. What matters, in fact, is the exact opposite. We are witnessing the vigorous flowering of a public culture that Christians and non-Christians alike could share.
Quote ID: 680
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 47
Section: 3C,4B
As far as the formation of the new governing class of the post-Constantinian empire was concerned, the fourth century was very definitely not a century overshadowed by ‘The Conflict of Paganism and Christianity’. Nothing, indeed, would have been more distressing to a member of the late Roman upper classes than the suggestion that ‘pagan’ and ‘Christian’ were designations of overriding importance in their style of life and in their choice of friends and allies.
Quote ID: 703
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Rather, as we saw in the previous chapter, studied ambiguity and strong loyalty to common ‘symbolic forms’, which spoke with a strong, but religiously neutral, voice of the authority of the empire and the security of its social order, prevailed at this time.
Quote ID: 704
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 53
Section: 1A,3C
What we call the ‘process of Christianization’ can never be divorced from the wider debate on the nature and modes of authority, by which a universal Christian Church insensibly came to replace a universal empire. First the Roman empire, then the Christian Church came to stand for a reassuringly immovable horizon beyond which privileged and settled persons . . . were frankly disinclined to look.
Quote ID: 712
Time Periods: 14
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 67
Section: 3C,3D
Unlike the European missionaries of a later age, the Christian holy men and women of late antiquity and the early middle ages, to use the words of Kaplan’s study of the holy men of medieval Ethiopia, ‘appeared as representatives of a power superior to that of traditional faiths, but not as purveyors of a dramatically different world view or type of religion’.23
Quote ID: 716
Time Periods: 4
Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568
Guy Halsall
Book ID: 36 Page: 99/100
Section: 3C
Constantine’s conversion had been decisive. {125} Whatever personal piety lay behind it, it cannot have been lost upon him that a well organised, exclusive monotheism provided the best religious underpinning for the new Empire’s totalitarian ideology. In that sense, Constantine’s conversion can, ironically, be seen as the logical extension of the pagan Diocletian’s reforms.
Quote ID: 736
Time Periods: 4
Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568
Guy Halsall
Book ID: 36 Page: 100
Section: 3C,4B
The key to Christianity’s dramatic spread was the importance of imperial patronage. {126} As we have seen, imperial service was, in various ways, vital in local politics. As Constantine’s success grew it became apparent that to receive his patronage one would need to be Christian. There were, furthermore, dramatic illustrations of Constantine’s favours to converts. Conversion was, thus, drawn down through Roman society along the arteries of patronage.
Quote ID: 737
Time Periods: 4
Barbarians within the Gates of Rome
Thomas S. Burns
Book ID: 37 Page: 1
Section: 3C
The Battle of Adrianople is generally regarded as a disaster from which Roman power never recovered. Contemporaries Ammianus Marcellinus, Jerome, Orosius, and others seem to leave no room for doubt about that. For the secular Ammianus, the events of 9 August 378, a dry and dusty day indeed, marked a check to the relentless and basically successful reassertion of Roman dominance depicted in the rest of his extant work.
Quote ID: 745
Time Periods: 4
Barbarians within the Gates of Rome
Thomas S. Burns
Book ID: 37 Page: xiii
Section: 3C,4B
Nonetheless there is a line leading from the Roman defeat near Adrianople in 378, through the “non-event” of the Sack of Rome in 410, to the settlement of the Goths and their allies in Aquitaine in 418.
Quote ID: 742
Time Periods: 45
Book Of The Popes (Liber Pontificalis), The
Louise Ropes Loomis
Book ID: 200 Page: 47
Section: 2E3,3C
In his time Constantine Augustus built the following basilicas and adorned them.
Quote ID: 4521
Time Periods: 4
Book Of The Popes (Liber Pontificalis), The
Louise Ropes Loomis
Book ID: 200 Page: 48
Section: 2E3,3C
4 crowns{3} of purest gold with 20 dolphins, weighing each fifteen lbs;A vaulting for the basilica of polished gold, in length and in breadth 500 lbs.;{4}
7 altars of purest silver, weighing each 200 lbs.;
7 golden patens, weighing each thirty lbs ;
16 silver patens, weighing each thirty lbs.;
7 goblets of purest gold, weighing each 10 lbs. ;
Pastor John’s note: etc.
Quote ID: 4522
Time Periods: 4
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 654
Section: 3C,4B
Early in 313, Constantine and Licinius met at Milan to co-ordinate their rule. To consolidate Christian support in all provinces, Constantine and Licinius issued an “Edict of Milan,” confirming the religious toleration proclaimed by Galerius, extending it to all religions, and ordering the restorations of Christian properties seized during the recent persecutions. After this historic declaration, which in effect conceded the defeat of paganism, Constantine returned to the defense of Gaul, and Licinius moved eastward to overwhelm Maximinus (313).
Quote ID: 940
Time Periods: 4
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 655
Section: 3C
But neither of the Augusti had quite abandoned the hope of undivided supremacy. In 314 their mounting enmity reached the point of war. Constantine invaded Pannonia, defeated Licinius, and exacted the surrender of all Roman Europe except Thrace. Licinius revenged himself upon Constantine’s Christian supporters by renewing the persecution in Asia and Egypt. He excluded Christians from his palace at Nicomedia, required every soldier to adore the pagan gods, forbade the simultaneous attendance of both sexes at Christian worship, and at last prohibited all Christian services within city walls. Disobedient Christians lost their positions, their citizenship, their property, their liberty, or their lives.Constantine watched for an opportunity not only to succor the Christians of the East, but to add the East to his realm. When barbarians invaded Thrace, and Licinius failed to move against them, Constantine led his army from Thessalonica to the rescue of Licinius’ province. After the barbarians were driven back, Licinius protested Constantine’s entry into Thrace; and as neither ruler desired peace, war was renewed.
Quote ID: 941
Time Periods: 4
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 655
Section: 3C
Was his conversion sincere—was it an act of religious belief, or a consummate stroke of political wisdom? Probably the latter. {33} His mother Helena had turned to Christianity when Constantius divorced her; presumably she had acquainted her son with the excellences of the Christian way…
Quote ID: 942
Time Periods: 4
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 656
Section: 3A4,3C
His letters to Christian bishops make it clear that he cared little for the theological differences that agitated Christendom—though he was willing to suppress dissent in the interests of imperial unity. Throughout his reign he treated the bishops as his political aides; he summoned them, presided over their councils, and agreed to enforce whatever opinion their majority should formulate. A real believer would have been a Christian first and a statesman afterward; with Constantine it was the reverse. Christianity was to him a means, not an end.
Quote ID: 943
Time Periods: ?
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 656/657
Section: 3A4B,3C
Christians were especially numerous in Rome under Maxentius, and in the East under Licinius; Constantine’s support of Christianity was worth a dozen legions to him in his wars against these men. He was impressed by the comparative order and morality of Christian conduct, the bloodless beauty of Christian ritual, the obedience of Christians to their clergy, their humble acceptance of life’s inequalities in the hope of happiness beyond the grave; perhaps this new religion would purify Roman morals, regenerate marriage and the family, and allay the fever of class war. The Christians, despite bitter oppression, had rarely revolted against the state; their teacher s had inculcated submission to the civil powers, and had taught the divine right of kings. Constantine aspired to an absolute monarchy; such a government would profit from religious support; the hierarchical discipline and ecumenical authority of the Church seemed to offer a spiritual correlate for monarchy. Perhaps that marvelous organization of bishops and priests could become an instrument of pacification, unification, and rule?Nevertheless, in a world still preponderantly pagan, Constantine had to feel his way by cautious steps. He continued to use vague monotheistic language that any pagan could accept. During the earlier years of his supremacy he carried out patiently the ceremonial required of him as pontifex maximus of the traditional cult; he restored pagan temples, and ordered the taking of the auspices. He used as well as Christian rites in dedicating Constantinople [PJ: ?]. He used pagan magic formulas to protect crops and heal disease. {36}
Gradually, as his power grew more secure, he favored Christianity more openly. After 317 his coins dropped one by one their pagan effigies, until by 323 they bore only neutral inscriptions. A legal text of his reign, questioned but not disproved, gave Christian bishops the authority of judges in their dioceses; {37} other laws exempted Church realty from taxation, {38} made Christian associations juridical persons, allowed them to own land and receive bequests, and assigned the property of intestate martyrs to the Church. {39} Constantine gave money to needy congregations, built several churches in Constantinople and elsewhere, and forbade the worship of images in the new capital. Forgetting the Edict of Milan, he prohibited the meetings of heretical sects, and finally ordered the destruction of their conventicles. {40} He gave his sons an orthodox Christian education, and financed his mother’s Christian philanthropies. The Church rejoiced in blessings beyond any expectation. Eusebius broke out into orations that were songs of gratitude and praise; and all over the Empire Christians gathered in festal thanksgiving for the triumph of their God.
Quote ID: 944
Time Periods: 4
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 664
Section: 2A1,3C
As his illness increased, he called for a priest to administer to him that sacrament of baptism which he had purposely deferred to this moment, hoping to be cleansed by it from all the sins of his crowded life. Then the tired ruler, aged sixty-four, laid aside the purple robes of royalty, put on the white garb of a Christian neophyte, and passed away.
Quote ID: 954
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 166
Section: 3C
Diocletian dressed as a king, but it was left for Constantine to add a diadem to the costume.
Quote ID: 1030
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 172
Section: 3C
What Constantine accomplish “is an achievement without parallel in the recorded history of man.”
Quote ID: 1039
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 177
Section: 3C
Eusebius ends his Church History thus:“Constantine the most mighty victor, resplendent with every virtue that godliness bestows, together with his son Crispus, an emperor most dear to God in all respects like his father, recovered the East that belonged to them, and formed the Roman Empire, as in the days of old, into a single united whole, bringing under their peaceful rule all of it. . . . Thus verily, when all tyranny had been purged away, the kingdom that belonged to them was preserved steadfast and undisputed for Constantine and his sons alone, who when they had made it their very first action to cleanse the world from the hatred of God, . . . displayed their love of virtue and of God . . . by their manifest deeds in sight of all men.”
Quote ID: 1043
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 177
Section: 3C
“The old age perished at the Milvian Bridge, and a new Christian age began.”
Quote ID: 1044
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 177
Section: 3C
Constantine “was a convinced and sincere Christian.”
Quote ID: 1045
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 2
Section: 1A,3C
Whatever might have been said back in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, by the twentieth it had become clear and agreed on all hands that nothing counted after Constantine save the newly triumphant faith. From that point on the “Roman” had become “the Christian Empire.”
Quote ID: 1254
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 34
Section: 2B2,3C
When Constantine, therefore, at the very center of his capital, the New Rome, placed his image portraying him as the Sun God, with rayed head and thunderbolt in hand, atop a huge red stone column, there receiving sacrifices and prayers exactly as Caesar’s statue on its column, in old Rome had once been the object of prayers and offerings, or again, when his smaller image was paraded about the hippodrome in the so-called Sun Chariot, among torches, and saluted ceremoniously from the royal box—by his successors, on their knees—no doubt ecclesiastical protest should have been instant.
Quote ID: 1275
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 35
Section: 3C,3D
By orators, careful to say only what was safe and more than safe, Christian emperors from Constantine on continued to be addressed to their face as “god-like,” divinus, or even as “god,” deus; still at the accession of Justin the Second in 565, the poet laureate rejoiced that kings offered him their bowed heads, “tremble before his name, and adore his divinity.”
Quote ID: 1276
Time Periods: 456
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 35
Section: 3C
During his lifetime, Constantine referred to his father as divinized and made elaborate arrangements for his own worship after his own decease.
Quote ID: 1277
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 44
Section: 2B2,3C
However deep or shallow its wellsprings, imperial preference was not at all influenced by strategy. Constantine himself, for years after A.D. 312, continued to pay his public honors to the Sun. They were paid in coin of the realm - rather, on coins, in the form of images of the emperor shown jointly with Sol; but other coins showed the Chi-Rho sign; so it was known that both compliments were acceptable to Constantine.
Quote ID: 1436
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 44
Section: 3C
. . . it is therefore quite mistaken to conclude that “Constantine’s revolution was perhaps the most audacious act ever committed by an autocrat in disregard and defiance of the vast majority of his subjects.” It wasn’t that, nor can the great majority of his subjects have seen it that way. Its immediate effect on them was nil.The distinction needs to be drawn in this way between the emperor’s favor, freely shown, out of his feelings toward the church, and his favor shown in order to gain political advantage; for, further, it governs the kinds of inducements and therefore the kinds of response that make up the whole history of conversion post-312.
Quote ID: 1437
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 45
Section: 2B2,3C
Even the best reasoning must occasionally yield to fact; and it is no doubt a fact, even though reported by Eusebius - devout, obliging, panegyrical biographer of Constantine - that the emperor did some evangelizing among the Palace Guard and gave Sundays off to his coreligionists in the forces generally.A capital error, however, leading to or showing all sorts of fundamental misunderstandings about the empire and its normal operations, is to suppose that after A.D. 312, specifically, on “Oct. 28, 312, the army of Constantine became officially Christian.” Evidence that there was widespread in the empire a sense of lawful norms in religion, other than mutual respect among all faiths, that these norms were customarily to be enforced by the chief officers of the state, or even that some vaguer kind of religious guidance was to be sought from the ruler, cannot be found so early in the century.
Constantine, then, was not expected to change the faith of his men “officially”, and made no great effort in that direction; but he and his remaining rival in the east, Licinius, could not avoid some statement on the subject - it seemed to be, after all, a moment only of hiatus in the persecutions. So they issued one of many most ambiguously worded calls, in those decades, for piety “toward the divine and holy” (or similar periphrases). Believers of every persuasion could certainly swallow that.
Quote ID: 1440
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 47
Section: 2E1,3C
Commemorating his victory in 324, Constantine’s mints in his new eastern domains issued coins showing him spearing Licinius (portrayed as a nasty dragon) with the staff of a little battle flag. On the flag was the Chi-Rho, or Christogram.. . .and his sons adopted the same symbolism. But it was so empty of religious meaning by the 350’s that it could be displayed by a non-Christian, the pretender Magnentius, in issue after the issue for years.
Quote ID: 1441
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 47
Section: 3A1,3A4,3C
Turning back to our point of departure, the weight of religion in Constantine’s day, we have noted that two-thirds of his government at the top were non-Christian.
Quote ID: 1442
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 48
Section: 3C,4B
Our point of inquiry has thus been turned all around and subjected to various questions from various angles. Were coreligionists given a monopoly in office by an incoming emperor in this half-century up to the mid-360’s? No. Did emperors or their men use good clear language when they called on divine aid in the camp, and did the symbolism of victory that they used for advertisement in army settings have a clearly religious meaning? No. The negatives all prepared us for the final question, whether the political history of this period can be written in religious terms at all. The answer is surely no.On an unofficial level, the physical facilities for non-Christian worship in every city and, for that matter, in most rural settings as well, were regularly given as a present.
Quote ID: 8160
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 49
Section: 3C,4B
The role of patron, then, permitted Constantine in his new faith to have “quite enormous consequences,” as I termed it a few pages back.
Quote ID: 1444
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 49
Section: 2E3,3C
Best known are the extraordinary number, size, and grandeur of the basilicas with which Constantine enriched the church in Rome, many of them also assigned great endowments of land and other wealth, others in Aquileia to the north, Trier, Antioch, Nicomedia, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Cirta, and Savaria. In some now-lost decree, he exempted church lands from taxation; he ordered provincial officials to make available materials and labor for construction; set up a system of gifts of food to churches, grain allowances to nuns, widows, and others in church service; excused clerics from shouldering onerous, sometimes ruinous, civic obligations, indeed, saw that they were given regular “contributions” from the fiscus; and, in short and in sum, “presented the churches with many things.” Overnight, it seemed, he created “a Christianity whose bishops and clergy had had their social horizons blown wide open by finding the open-handed Constantine in their midst.”
Quote ID: 1446
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 50
Section: 3C
The fear inspired in his subjects, needing no armed force in supplement, is easily understood. The empire had never had on the throne a man given to such bloodthirsty violence as Constantine. He could hardly control the tone of his proclamations. For instance: “The inhabitants of Egypt, especially the Alexandrians, were accustomed to offer cult-worship through eunuch priests. Constantine issued a decree that every species of androgyne ambigender should be exterminated as a sort of monstrosity” - that is, subjected to summary execution - “and that no one henceforward should be seen contaminated with such impurity.”The 320’s and 330’s did not, then, see the forces of law or the police enlisted under the banner bearing the Chi-Rho - indeed, the regime had announced from the start, as its explicit policy, that everyone should respect everyone elses religion. But it was easy to see what the emperor really wanted; easy, too, to calculate the costs of countering the will of so angry an autocrat.
Constantine was a quarter-century on the throne as a Christian monarch, the first ever. In so long a reign, though its Christian years had begun without the least intent to propagate the Faith, his violent energies were gradually and to some degree drawn into a more truly Christian posture of active aggression: error, he saw, must be confronted and given its right name, and those who counted as his coreligionists must all pull together, “lest the Highest Divinity should be aroused not only against the human race” (bad enough, one would think) “but even against me, myself.”
Quote ID: 1447
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 51
Section: 3C
But of far greater importance, and the chief reason for that enormous impact he had on the rate of the church’s growth, was the set of his measures making his favor explicit and official: first, toleration decreed; second, money or its equivalent assigned in such forms as tax exemptions and grand buildings.
Quote ID: 1448
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 53
Section: 3C
Constantine’s sons continued and extended their father’s gifts to the church - gifts of exemptions from taxes and inheritance rights “and ten thousand other matters, as he Constantius reviewed them, through which he supposed he might bring his subjects over to the faith.”
Quote ID: 1454
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 56
Section: 3C
You could even win a new and improved municipal charter for your hometown by informing the emperor that it was now (he would be glad to know) completely Christian. So the port city of Maiouma told Constantine, who renamed it Constantia. It was, in sum, manifestly profitable in worldly terms to declare yourself Christian; . . .Some apparent converts were moved by their alarm; “others, envious at the honor in which Christians were held by the emperor, deemed it necessary to follow in the emperor’s path.
Quote ID: 1458
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 57
Section: 3C
Things changed after A.D. 312. Thereupon, people simply not of a very religious temperament were drawn to the church, at least to its periphery, and constituted a numerous though not very stable group. They were far too numerous to be ignored, nor did the church want to ignore them.Their [general Christian public, not devout] role is a little more important, too, than the purely numerical one of being counted by someone as Christians. They added to the impressiveness and presence of the church. Thereby they played a casual part in the inclining of others to a slower, more serious conversion. Though too ignoble to have ensured any record, the change of heart that began out of mere imitation, fashion, and respectability must surely be assumed to have been at work in the great burst of growth that the church enjoyed after Constantine.
Quote ID: 1460
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 63
Section: 2E6,3C
In Alexandria in A.D. 391, by whose instigation we are not told, but in any case in the wake of the great antipagan riots, “busts of Sarapis which stood in the walls, vestibules, doorways and windows of every house were all torn out and annihilated..., and in their place the sign of the Lord’s cross was painted in the doorways, vestibules, windows and walls, and on pillars.”
Quote ID: 1462
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 96
Section: 3C
. . . he also spoke out on non-Christians, as we have seen. They were a bad lot. He would have liked to obliterate them, no doubt. But, lacking the means for that, and only toward the end of his reign, he had to be content with robbing their temples.By established tradition, he restrained religious practices that might diminish divine favor or disturb the state. With this, we first begin to sense anti-pagan legislation, through which religious liberty was to be reduced, at the last, to nothing. Needless to say, hexing the imperial house was illegal. Divination except at the usual shrines was suspect. If it touched on political questions, it was a capital crime (and Constantine, for added emphasis, specified death by burning as the penalty).
The concern expressed here explains another seeming contradiction when, in A.D. 341, Constantius banned sacrifices. He had to explain what he meant a year or so later: temples were, after all, not to be destroyed. They were to continue serving as the sites of public entertainment and spectacles. Then, a little later, he ordered them closed; and, a generation after that, a successor reopened at least one of them by special legislation.
PJ: Conflicted heart.
Quote ID: 1486
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 97
Section: 3C
In A.D. 356, worship of images was also declared a capital crime. The law was promulgated at Milan.The 356 law was generally ignored.
Quote ID: 1489
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 113/114
Section: 3A1,3A4,3C
Bishops now actually dined with Constantine himself; they used Constantius’ palace as their headquarters. They were seen riding along provincial highways in state conveyances, bent on their high affairs, as guests of the government. All the world could behold what fantastic changes had come about in the repute and position of ecclesiastical officials. What they said now had an authority acknowledged by the emperors themselves; it hardly needed miracles to rest on.
Quote ID: 1496
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 114
Section: 3C,4B
Yet the successes of Christian conversion were multiplied many fold. The rate of growth became still more rapid-growth, that is, measured by the only means available to us. They include number and size of basilicas, number and distribution of bishoprics, and size of following or congregation reasonably estimated from these data, matched by correspondingly fewer and less well-cared-for pagan temples, fewer priesthoods, and less attendance at festival days. What can have accounted for such dramatic developments?
Quote ID: 1497
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 114
Section: 3C
They are of the same sort as before, but there are now material benefits also to be won through joining the church. Are these to be ignored? To give them serious consideration seems like an indecent attack on the church of martyrs, indeed on the whole city of God. But that is theology. Everything else makes me think that converts, in their moral nature, temperament, motivation, and every other characteristic, differed not a whit from the neighbors they left behind them. So, then, if we can credit the emperor Julian’s calculation that adherents to his cause could be won over in part through money, then we must suppose that Constantine’s calculations were of the same order - and his gifts, of course, over ten times as long as a reign, were vastly greater. Or if the emperor Maximin Daia thought that whole communities could be swayed to “the better view,” as he would have said (in this case, the pagan), through promotion to higher civic status, then why should not Constantine hope to appeal to the port town of Maiouma in the same way? There is no sign or likely-attracted a kind of person who felt himself above material benefits.
Quote ID: 1498
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 115
Section: 3C
The local Bishop was now a landowner, too: in Italy, overnight, on a very large scale indeed, thanks to Constantine; elsewhere, on a scale we cannot yet measure. Thousands of field hands and shepherds and so forth came under the direction of ecclesiastical bailiffs and slave drivers. So did their counterparts on private estates and in grand city houses, as their masters were attracted to the church by the prospect of more rapid promotion in the civil service and a more cordial welcome as a dinner guest or son-in-law. Among the many persons, daughters of doorkeepers and the like, who were dependent on such great men, prudence would teach conformity to their choice of worship.
Quote ID: 1500
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 117
Section: 2B2,3C
What had been a point difficult to cross before A.D. 312 was so no longer; yet people who did cross were reluctant to leave behind all their old ways. So they made such adaptations as were really necessary and kept what they could. In this process changes were slow but important.
Quote ID: 1502
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 47
Section: 3C,3E
The character of the eastern Roman empire was largely fashioned by two emperors, Constantine in the fourth century and Justinian I in the sixth. Their social backgrounds were remarkably similar; they were both of Balkan peasant stock. Constantine’s father and Justinian’s uncle both rose from this humble background to be important generals and later attained imperial power. Constantine’s mother Helena (St. Helena in the Greek church) had been a Balkan barmaid and probably a prostitute. Justinian married a circus dancer, Theodora, probably also a prostitute. Constantine and Justinian also resembled each other in great industry, administrative ability, and devotion to the church.
Quote ID: 4661
Time Periods: 46
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Constantine was born 280 to Helena and Constantius Chlorus, who later became caesar, or assistant emperor, in the western empire in charge of Britain and Gaul. Constantius Chlorus’ religion tended toward pagan monotheism in the form of the Unconquerable Sun.
Quote ID: 4662
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 48
Section: 3C
This conversion of Constantine has become a controversial subject among historians. Much of the evidence for the conversion of Constantine to Christianity comes from Lactantius, a Latin writer in Asia Minor, who, about 320, wrote the Death of the Persecutors, a popular book in the Middle Ages.
Quote ID: 4663
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 50
Section: 3C,4A
To the western Christians their Greek-speaking fellows were trying to define the indefinable - the trinity of God, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The deeply philosophical problems that were of such overriding importance to the easterners gave way in the West to more pragmatic problems of church administration and consideration of the relationship between the deity and man.
Quote ID: 4665
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 52
Section: 3C
The Reformation, in the instance of Protestant sectarianism, showed its Donatist heritage: To be a full member of the church, you had to have a conversional experience and you had to have a conviction of reception of grace. The problem the Catholic church faced was that in absorbing society there was the chance that, just as society would be civilized and changed by its association with the church, so, too, could the church be barbanized by society. Had Christianity remained a religion of the elite, this danger from society would have been reduced, and the Donatist ideal of a church of the saints could have been realized. But a church of the saints could not at the same time be a catholic church bringing the means of grace to all mankind. There never could be a compromise between Donatism and Catholicism. Poor Constantine was bewildered by the Donatist dispute. His attempts at peacemaking between the two groups inevitably failed.
Quote ID: 4666
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 52
Section: 3C
The Reformation, in the instance of Protestant sectarianism, showed its Donatist heritage: To be a full member of the church, you had to have a conversional experience and you had to have a conviction of reception of grace. The problem the Catholic church faced was that in absorbing society there was the chance that, just as society would be civilized and changed by its association with the church, so, too, could the church be barbanized by society. Had Christianity remained a religion of the elite, this danger from society would have been reduced, and the Donatist ideal of a church of the saints could have been realized. But a church of the saints could not at the same time be a catholic church bringing the means of grace to all mankind. There never could be a compromise between Donatism and Catholicism. Poor Constantine was bewildered by the Donatist dispute. His attempts at peacemaking between the two groups inevitably failed.
Quote ID: 4667
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 54
Section: 3C
Constantine did not feel powerful enough to force the old aristocracy into the church, but hoped he could undermine the position of Rome in the world and sabotage the influential position of the pagan aristocracy. The Roman aristocracy continued to enjoy wealth and power in the West, particularly in Rome. In building Constantinople, Constantine envisioned a new imperial capital where Christianity would be supreme and unchallenged.
Quote ID: 4670
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 55/56
Section: 3A4,3C,4B
The advance of a Christian to the imperial throne produced an inevitable reconsideration of the church’s attitude to kingship. As long as the emperor was a non-Christian, sometimes openly anti-Christian, the theoretical question of church-state relations scarcely arose; the church could take a negative attitude toward the state without any doubt or hesitation by its leaders. But the emergence of the Christian king raised a host of new problems, for which the solution was not readily apparent.The readjustment in the church’s conception of kingship was further made inevitable by the close involvement of the emperor and bishops in each other’s affairs in the fourth century. Heresies, schisms, and requests for state interference in the life of the church by Christian bishops, on the one side, and what J. B. Bury aptly called the emperor’s despotic instinct to control all social forces, on the other, brought about a close union between church and state.
Quote ID: 4671
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 57
Section: 3C
Great benefits accrued from the Christian acceptance of political monotheism and its implications. The recovery of imperial unity and authority in the fourth century would have been impossible without the ideology that regained for the emperor the loyalty and devotion of the illiterate masses of the empire. By the time of Constantine it is difficult to see any other basis for the restoration of popular loyalty than the association of the imperial office of divinity. Political monotheism was a political necessity.
Quote ID: 4672
Time Periods: 4
Civilizations of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History, The
Norman F. Cantor
Book ID: 203 Page: 58
Section: 3C
Thus the Christian church, in the fourth century, finally settled the great controversy that had so seriously disturbed ecclesiastical life. But it did so only by subordinating itself to the will of the emperor.
Quote ID: 4674
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 165/166
Section: 2B,3C
However, it became established that the Genius of the Roman People – for such was the formula which emerged – was, as might be expected, male.. . . .
Genius again wears that crown, sometimes combined with the rays of fashionable Sun-worship, on the obverse of one of the last large bronze coins ever to be issued at Rome, and one of the very few, within the past two hundred and fifty years, to show any head at all other than some portrait explicitly ascribed as to an imperial personage. The coins may date from a short period of interregnum immediately following Gallienus’ death (268). {15}
. . . .
The principal issues with GENIO POPVLI ROMANI, diversified by a more varied range of Romanit` from Maxentius whose principal asset was his control of the capital city, declined and came to an end in AD 316, when Christianity was beginning to offer new watchwords (p. 180). Yet the appeal of Rome did not cease. A large painting, apparently of Constantine’s reign, shows a frontal seated figure of a goddess. {16} When Fortune (Tyche) and other gods vanished at this time, the Fortunes or spirits of cities were retained and interpreted as entities at God’s gift and will. Indeed Constantine himself, despite his Christianity, gave Constantinople a temple of Fortune, and placed in this shrine a statue of the Fortune of Rome. {17}
Quote ID: 4719
Time Periods: 234
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 169
Section: 3B,3C
And yet the appeal to the divi was a failure, for except in some countries such as Africa, where their worship was especially strong, this cult did not outlast the third century; in the revivals of paganism under Diocletian, it played only a very minor part. Nevertheless Maxentius deified his own son, who had died in boyhood (c. 310), and Constantine honoured Divus Claudius Gothicus, a fellow-Illyrian emperor and Sun-worshipper from whom he claimed descent (p. 180). Moreover, the Christian Constantine himself became Divus after his death.
Quote ID: 4722
Time Periods: 34
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 170
Section: 3C
Yet for centuries the official coinage, while offering every other conceivable form of adulation, scrupulously refrains from declaring the living emperor to be a god. He was never named divus in his lifetime, and it was not until the later third century that a few rare issues of Serdica (Sofia) in his homeland call Aurelian deus. But that was untypical isolated flight of fancy (cf. p. 279, n. 20); the empire was not a theocracy.
Quote ID: 4723
Time Periods: 3
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 179
Section: 3C,2B
Then in c. 309 Constantius’ son Constantine the Great began his vast, homogeneous series of coinages inscribed SOLI INVICTO COMITO (pg. 173). {81} Therefore, for a decade, he continued to concentrate upon this design and theme. Indeed Constantine, before finally turning to Christianity, stressed the worship of the Sun more frequently and emphatically than any of his predecessors.
Quote ID: 4740
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 180
Section: 3C,2B
. . .And on the sculptures of the Arch of Constantine at Rome (c. 315) the old gods have gone but the Sun still remains: the emperor is represented between the rising Sun and Moon, and the victory-giving figure is the Sun-god, whose statuettes are also carried by the army’s standard-bearers. An inscription describes Constantine himself as the Sun who sees all.
Quote ID: 4741
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 180
Section: 3C,2B
Even as late as 321, when official Christianity was forming deep roots, Constantine forbade legal proceedings on the day of the week ‘celebrated by the veneration of the Sun’.
Quote ID: 4742
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 180/181
Section: 3C,2B
Constantine was now sole ruler of the Roman world and arbiter of its religion, upon which he had already begun to impose such revolutionary changes. Yet his panegyrist still sees him ‘with a circumambient halo resembling rays of light’; and when his great statue was erected at the central point of the new capital at Constantinople (428-30), it portrayed him as Apollo-Helios, wearing the Sun’s radiate Crown. This crown was also fashioned from the nails from the True Cross, for he now saw himself as the Vicegerent of Christ. In his own mysterious way, Constantine seems to have worshipped Sun and Christ at the same time, or regarded them as interchangeable, assimilating the Christian faith into an inherited solar tradition as Aurelian had assimilated the Sun into the traditions of Rome.
Quote ID: 4743
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 213
Section: 3C,2E1
The Crucifixion is rarely depicted before the fourth century. As to Constantine’s alleged vision of the cross in the sky, followed by his employment of the cruciform labarum-monogram XP (=Christos) (p. 236), the cross meant magic more than anything else to him, and in any case it stood not so much for the Passion as for the Resurrection – a new era and a new stage in the divine plan.
Quote ID: 4757
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 217
Section: 3C
Since men had to live in the world and wished to avoid sin after baptism, they often did not take this sacrament until they were on their deathbeds (p. 237), though the christening of infants had already become common in the third century. Baptism, even more than the initiations of pagan faiths, was a direct, personal, intimate contact with the divinity, blending the sacramental with the transcendent, combining splendor with simplicity. Above all, the rite was believed to effect escape from damnation into immortality; it was a second birth, a birth-giving wave, a calm pure light which came from above and flooded the cleansed heart of its receiver. {30}
Quote ID: 4759
Time Periods: 23
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 224
Section: 3C
Nevertheless, Jews were exempted from the major persecutions of Christianity, or at least did not feel their full force.When the empire became Christian, this ambiguous pattern did not change. Constantine used forcible language against the Jews, forbidding them to circumcise their Christian slaves or molest those who had abandoned the Hebrew faith for Christianity. Yet he also allowed their rabbis exemption from municipal duties.
Quote ID: 4765
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 224/225
Section: 3C
Moreover, if the Jews were excusable because they followed their ancestral religion, there was no such excuse for the Christians; and so they were even more unpopular. Besides, the appeal of Christianity to the lower classes and slaves, and its promises of a classless salvation, {62} could easily be interpreted as subversive, especially in times of national emergency (p. 229).
Quote ID: 4766
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 236
Section: 3C
In the east, Constantine had two emperors to deal with—Maximinus Daia in the non-European part of the empire, and his rival Licinius (a friend of the late Galerius) in the Danubian provinces. Professing amicable relations with both, Constantine requested Daia to stop the persecution of Christians—and gave Licinius his half-sister Constantia in marriage. At the wedding celebrations, Constantine and Licinius published the so-called Edict of Milan, which introduced universal religious tolerance. Constantine then left Maximinus Daia and Licinius to fight it out (313). Daia, defeated, agreed to a tolerant policy just before his death, and Licinius remained emperor of the east as Constantine’s colleague for another eleven years.
Quote ID: 4771
Time Periods: ?
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 237
Section: 3C
Their priests, other than those of dissident sects (p. 241), were, like those of the Jews, exempted from municipal obligations. But a more decisive step had already been taken when funds (presaging a heavy drain upon the national exchequer) were sent to subsidise provincial churches, for example at Carthage. The lodging of the bishop of Rome or pope changed sharply for the better when he was given the royal palace of the Laterani {99} and magnificent new churches. The liturgy borrowed imposing features from official and court ceremonial. Moreover, the church, in keeping with its new privileges, was entrusted with public responsibilities. In spite of the differences between Christian ideas and pagan legal traditions, Episcopal courts were given jurisdiction in civil cases (318). People were permitted to bequeath their property to the church, which thus ranked as a civic corporation. {100} Finally Constantine himself was baptised, after postponing this, like many Christians, until his deathbed when he could sin no more (p. 217).
Quote ID: 4772
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 237
Section: 1A,3C,3C2
Church and state were to be run in double harness. But as the emperor increasingly became aware of his personal mission, the successive Councils of Arelate (314) and Nicaea (325) – the former attended by western, and the latter mainly by eastern bishops—showed that the master was Constantine, to whom the celestial will had committed the government of all things on earth. Consequently membership of the church now meant resignation to the claims of the state, and an extremely oppressive state it was (pp. 63 ff). Since, however, there was going to be an official church, nothing but this enforced subordination could produce the power-structure needed to guarantee that state and church, and the empire with them, would not fall apart. Eusebius, whose Life of Constantine framed the new theory of Christian sovereignty in terms comparing the relationship of the emperor to Jesus with that of Jesus to God the Father, {101} felt so anxious not to return to the relative ineffectiveness of earlier Christian institutions, whose persecution by Diocletian even seemed to him deserved and merciful, that he applauded the capitulation of the church to Constantine.
Quote ID: 4773
Time Periods: 14
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 241
Section: 3C
A newly elected bishop of Carthage was denounced by his colleagues from the less sophisticated regions of Numidia, because he was opposed to the deliberate seeking-out martyrdom. The second of two rival bishops successively put forward in his place was Donatus. Like a contemporary sect in Egypt, the Donatists to whom he gave his name completely denied humanist, urban, traditional culture, and at the same time rejected the sovereignty of the church. Constantine, regarding these Donatists as irreconcilable enemies of the unity which was his aim, excluded them from the subsidies distributed to Christian churches. In spite of endless argument, the attitudes of the two sides took irreversible political shape, for and against the government (316). After Constantine’s dismissal of repeated appeals, the Donatists asked the new and crucial question of the day: what has the emperor to do with the church? And he for his part, tougher against Christian splinter-groups than against pagans, confiscated their churches and banished their bishops. The Donatists began to form a calendar of martyrs of their own.
Quote ID: 4776
Time Periods: 4
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 241
Section: 3A2A,3C
For when his unfriendly eastern colleague Licinius was goaded by Arian defiance into reviving persecution (p. 238), Constantine thought it best that he himself, by way of contrast, should not punish disobedient Donatists, but should leave their punishment to God. Yet an ominous tradition was already established: Christianity, as soon as it became official, had begun to persecute Christians. In the east, too, Constantine confiscated the churches of the various sects, and forbade them to hold services. {112}
Quote ID: 4777
Time Periods: ?
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 86/87
Section: 3A2,3A4,3C
Christianity and the new authoritarian empire of Diocletian were clearly incompatible, but there was an alternative to destructive and debilitating persecutions, and that was to absorb the religion within the authoritarian structure of the state, thus defusing it as a threat. This was to be the achievement of Constantine.
Quote ID: 4816
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 156
Section: 3C
If Constantine’s legitimacy depended on the support of the gods, then his own conception of the divine becomes crucial for understanding his reign. His early allegiances were entirely conventional. When in 307 he married, as a second wife, Fausta, the daughter of Maximinian, who had abdicated as Augustus in 305, he adopted Maximinian’s favoured protecting god, Hercules. By 310, when he asserted his descent from Claudius Gothicus, he claimed that Apollo had appeared to him in a vision (clearly Constantine’s favoured method of receiving divine messages), offering him a laurel wreath and promising that he would rule for thirty years.
Quote ID: 4820
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 156/157
Section: 2B2,3C
The sun, as the source of light and heat, had traditionally been integrated into an enormous variety of spiritual and philosophical contexts. Apollo had been associated with the sun since the fifth century B.C., while in the fourth century B.C. Plato had used the sun as a symbol of supreme truth, “the Good,” the apex of the Forms. The cult of Sol Invictus had been imported from Syria in the third century. It had proved popular among soldiers, and the emperor Aurelian (270-75) had built a massive temple to the cult in Rome. So when Constantine began using the sun as a mark of imperial power, often portraying himself on coins or statues with rays coming from his head....
Quote ID: 8168
Time Periods: 034
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 157
Section: 3C
Constantine announced that his victory was due to the support he had received from “the supreme deity,” by which Christians such as Eusebius claimed he meant the God of the Christians. The earliest account we have is from two or three years after the battle. Lactantius, a convert to Christianity, reported that Constantine had had a dream the night before the battle in which he was commanded to place the ’heavenly sign of god,“ the chi-rho sign, on his soldiers’ shields, and he did so. Many years later Constantine, apparently under oath, told his biographer Eusebius a somewhat different version of the story. At some point before the battle, it is not clear when, a cross of light had appeared in the skies above the sun. (The placing of the cross by the sun in Constantine’s memory seems significant.) It was inscribed ”By this sign, conquer,“ and this command had been confirmed in a dream when Christ himself had appeared to Constantine and asked him to inscribe a cross on his standards as a safeguard against his enemies.
Quote ID: 4821
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 158
Section: 3A4C,3C
The adoption of Christianity was not, however, to prove entirely straightforward. Constantine knew so little about Christianity that he immediately ran into difficulties. First, Christ was not a god of war. The Old Testament frequently involved God in the slaughter of his enemies, but the New Testament did not. Constantine would have to create a totally new conception of Christianity if he was to sustain the link between the Christian God and victory in war.
Quote ID: 4822
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 159/160
Section: 3C
Three years after his victory at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine was honoured by a grand triumphal arch in the centre of Rome (it still stands by the Colosseum) The imagery of the arch contains no suggestion of the influence of Christianity. There are, in fact, reliefs of Mars, Jupiter and Hercules, all traditional gods of war, and Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge is associated with the power of the sun and goddess Victory. The battle itself shows no sign of the Christian visions or Christian symbols on the soldiers’ shields.
Quote ID: 4823
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 160
Section: 2B2,3C
Constantine was still issuing coins bearing images of Sol Invictus as late as 320, and in the great bronze statue he later erected to himself in the Forum in Constantinople he was portrayed with the attributes of a sun-god, with rays emanating from his head.One reason why this pagan association was so successful in maintaining the emperor’s status was that the sun was also used in Christian worship and symbolism. The resurrection was believed to have taken place on the day of the sun, the most important day of the week for Christian worship (as the English word “Sunday” still suggests). A third-century fresco from the Vatican Hill in Rome even shows Christ dressed as the sun-god in a chariot on his way to heaven.
Quote ID: 4824
Time Periods: 34
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 161
Section: 3C,2E4,2E3
In the fifth century, Pope Leo was to rebuke Christians at St. Peter’s for turning their backs on St. Peter’s tomb and standing on the front steps of the basilica to worship the rising sun. Remarkably, the main festival of Sol Invictus was the day of winter solstice, December 25, adopted by Christians in the fourth century as the birthday of Christ. In short, the sun was a symbolic image through which Constantine could be presented effectively to both Christian and non-Christian audiences, thus maintaining his neutral position between opposing faiths.
Quote ID: 4825
Time Periods: 5
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 161
Section: 3C
Liebeschuetz suggests that imperial panegyrics, or at least those written Latin, are, after 321, “written in terms of a neutral monotheism which would be acceptable to Christians and pagans alike.” Later in his reign Constantine authorized the city of Hispellum on the Flaminian Way in Umbria to build a temple “in magnificent style” to the cult of his family, another indication of his reluctance to abandon traditional worship.
Quote ID: 4826
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 161/162
Section: 3C
He may have felt that only a powerful gesture such as tax exemption would succeed in allaying the distrust of Christians after so many decades of persecution by the state. However, he may not have foreseen the consequences. He appears to have been genuinely surprised at the number and diversity of communities calling themselves Christian, and soon after his victory he had to face the dilemma of whether to give patronage to all of these or to privilege some communities more than others.
Quote ID: 4827
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 172
Section: 3A2A,3C
According to the pagan historian Zosimus (writing much later), Crispus was suspected of having an affair with Fausta, his stepmother. Crispus was disposed of, but Constantine’s mother, Helena, took the death of her grandson so badly that to appease her, Constantine had Fausta killed as well, drowned in an overheated bath. The event shocked non-Christians as much as it did Christians. One pagan source even suggests that it drew Constantine closer to Christianity because the Christians offered forgiveness for an offence no pagan would condone.
Quote ID: 4838
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 175
Section: 3C
His position and his strategy required that he keep his distance from the institutional church. It is remarkable that there is no evidence that Constantine ever attended a church service. (The records suggest that bishops were summoned to attend him in his palaces.) After his death his sons issued a coin to commemorate their own consecratio. On one side it bore Constantine’s veiled head and an inscription, “The deified Constantine, father of the Augusti”’; on the other, Constantine is seen ascending to heaven in a chariot with God’s hand reaching out to welcome him, a portrayal similar to those of his pagan predecessors. His links to the traditions of pagan Rome were preserved to the last.
Quote ID: 4845
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 175
Section: 3C
However, by bringing Christianity so firmly under the control of the state, even to the extent of attempting to formulate its doctrine at Nicaea, Constantine was severing the traditional church from its roots.
Quote ID: 4846
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 179
Section: 3A2,3C
Once Constantine had provided tax exemptions for Christian clergy, eventually including exemptions for church lands, it became imperative to tighten up the definition of “Christian.” As Constantine had put it in a law of 326, “The benefits that have been granted in consideration of religion must benefit only the adherents of the Catholic e.g., ”correct“ faith. It is our will, moreover, that heretics and schismatics shall not only be alien to those privileges but shall be bound and subjected to various compulsory public services.” The definition of “Catholicism” and heresy took on a new urgency for the state.
Quote ID: 4851
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 202
Section: 3C
He the emperor does not bring you liberty by casting you in prison, but treats you with respect within his palace and thus makes you his slave. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, on the new status of Bishops, mid fourth century1.Quoted in Philip Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome and Cassian (Oxford, 1978), pg. 84.
Quote ID: 4893
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 203
Section: 3C,3A1
After Constantine’s reign the hierarchy of bishops began to mirror the political hierarchy. The capital city of each province, the seat of the provincial governor, became the seat of the metropolitan bishop, who exercised some authority over the other bishops of the province.
Quote ID: 4896
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 204
Section: 2C,3C
However, just how closely the power of the church mirrored that of the state can be seen in the decision of the Council of Constantinople in 381 to elevate the bishop of the city “next after the bishop of Rome because Constantinople is the new Rome.”
Quote ID: 4897
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 206
Section: 2E3,3C,4B
It was an ancient tradition that a city should glorify itself through its temples. Aristotle suggested in his Politics that a quarter of the revenues of a city’s territory ought to be dedicated to the gods; others proposed as much as a third. Since Hellenistic times kings and emperors had showered their patronage on favoured cities. Many temples were crammed with gold and silver statues, and imperial patronage was a means of raising support for the gods.
Quote ID: 4900
Time Periods: 014
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 206
Section: 2E3,3C,4B
Constantine followed in this tradition and concentrated his patronage on the building and adornment of churches. As, unlike pagan temples, which were primarily designed to house cult statues, churches needed to house congregations, Constantine adopted the basilica as the most appropriate form. Yet as basilicas were now also used as the audience halls of the emperors (that surviving at Trier, although stripped of its original opulent decoration, gives some idea of the model), it is arguable that Constantine was stressing in yet another way the close links between the state and Christianity. It is hard for us to grasp the sheer scale of this imperial patronage. It was so lavish that Constantine had to strip resources from temples to fund it.
Quote ID: 4901
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 207
Section: 2E3,3C
Everything in these new churches had to be of the highest quality. While early Christian decoration, in the catacombs or house churches, for instance, had consisted of painted walls, now nothing less than mosaic was appropriate.
Quote ID: 4902
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 208
Section: 2E3,3C
The gold of churches was necessary to give the believer a stepping stone to a full appreciation of the glories of heaven. Once a rationale had been created to divert the most precious of materials and the finest of buildings to Christian use, the old reservations were largely dissolved.
Quote ID: 4903
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 208
Section: 2E3,3C
If a church had now become a symbol of heaven, how were figures to be shown? The answer was to model them on the imperial court, the closest model for heaven on earth.
Quote ID: 4904
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 208
Section: 2E3,3A1,3C
Sabine MacCormack notes how once Christ was represented with such imperial imagery, the emperors ceased to make use of it: “Once an image of majesty had been applied to Christ it was impossible to apply it again to the emperor.”{15.} S. MacCormack, Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity (Berkely and London, 1981), p. 130
Quote ID: 4905
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 209
Section: 3C,4B
While it was the emperors who initiated the massive patronage required to build these churches, it soon became a badge of faith for wealthy Christians to contribute.
Quote ID: 4908
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 235
Section: 3C,4B
This sense of guilt could only have been reinforced by the new wealth of the church and what the historian Eusebius was to call the “hypocrisy of those who crept into the church” in order to enjoy its benefits.
Quote ID: 4940
Time Periods: 4
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 235
Section: 3C,2E2
Cassian, who brought monasticism from east to west, and who, unlike (as we shall see) Jerome, had a relatively balanced and perceptive view of asceticism, put it more prosaically:As their [the early Christians’] fervour cooled, many combined their confession of Christ with wealth; but those who kept the fervour of the apostles, recalling that former perfection, withdrew from the cities and from the society of those who thought this laxness of living permissible for themselves and for the church, to spots on the edges of towns, or more remote places and there practised privately and in their own groups the things they remembered the apostles had instituted for the whole body of the church.
{6.} R.A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990), p.166
Quote ID: 4941
Time Periods: 45
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 264
Section: 2B2,3C
So a conversion to Christianity need not have been abrupt. Often pagans compromised with Christianity by linking a particular martyr with and existing pagan festival so that the celebrations and rituals could continue as before.
Quote ID: 4962
Time Periods: 34
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: xviii
Section: 3C
When Constantine gave toleration to the churches in the early fourth century, he found to his dismay that Christian communities were torn by dispute. He himself did not help matters by declaring tax exemptions for Christian clergy and offering the churches immense patronage, which meant that getting the “right” version of Christian doctrine.
Quote ID: 4781
Time Periods: 4
Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 206 Page: 46
Section: 3C
It must be concluded that Constantine’s arrangements for taxation, although partly inherited and no doubt urgently required by the costly policies on which he had embarked, contributed largely to the future of trade and agriculture, and caused widespread hostility to the State. It was a crushing tax system, which ultimately defeated its own purpose, because it destroyed the very people who had to pay the taxes. {6}[Footnote 6] M.Grant, The Emperor Constantine (1993), p. 225
Quote ID: 5019
Time Periods: 4
Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 206 Page: 52
Section: 3C
Constantine felt a strong need for a divine companion and sponsor, and for a time the Sun, whose worship had been ancestral in his family, was his choice . . . It was athwart the Sun that he claimed to have seen the Cross, and on the sculptures of the Arch of Constantine at Rome the old gods have gone but the sun still remains: the emperor is represented between the rising Sun and the moon, and the victory-giving figure is the Sun-god, whose statuettes are carried by the army’s standard-bearers. An inscription describes Constantine himself as the Sun who sees all. It was not until 318-319, when the Christianization of the empire had gathered force, that the Sun disappeared from the coinage . . .
Quote ID: 5028
Time Periods: 4
Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 206 Page: 52
Section: 2B2,3C
Christians in the east and west, in their public and private prayers, turned to Oriens, the rising sun, in order to glorify its resurrection from the prison of the dark, which they identified with the Resurrection of Christ...Some people confused the two deities...That is partly why devotees of the Sun . . .were among the fiercest enemies of the Christians . . . St. Leo the Great (d. 461) complained that Christians still worshipped the Sun. {8}[Footnote 8] Ibid., pp. 180ff. It has lately been argued that much of the Arch of Constantine is of considerably earlier date.
Quote ID: 5029
Time Periods: 4
Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 206 Page: 53
Section: 3C
Constantine was a Christian of a very peculiar type that would hardly be recognized as Christian today. For the God he believed in was a God of power, who had given him victory, and would have had little sympathy with the idea that Christianity meant love, or charity, or humility, of which his ’middle-brow’ view of religion would not have the slightest comprehension.
Quote ID: 5030
Time Periods: 4
Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 1.1-2, The
Edited by John Nicholas Lenker
Book ID: 336 Page: 424
Section: 3C,4B
265. EPIPHANY.For the great, mad crowd who become priests and monks for their bellies’ sake, that they may be provided for in this world, and who compose the larger part of the clergy, are not worthy to be discussed and much less is their vow of any validity.
Quote ID: 7840
Time Periods: 47
Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 5, The
Edited by Eugene F. A. Klug
Book ID: 338 Page: 103
Section: 3C,4B
HOLY CHRISTMAS DAY…the end purpose of the government is temporal peace, while the ultimate end of the church is not peace comfort on earth, nice homes, wealth, power and honor, but everlasting peace.
Quote ID: 7854
Time Periods: 47
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 35
Section: 3C
The death of Maximian ultimately strengthened Constantine’s real authorityover his court and administration. But part of his army had proved disloyal, and there were other sons of Constantius available for the purple, should anyone emulate Maximian and challenge Constantine’s position. In the summer of 310, therefore, Constantine felt insecure and resorted to a dynastic fiction which shows a real flair for propaganda. A speech delivered before Constantine shortly after 25 July not only narrates the story of the rebellion of Maximian, but mirrors very accurately what the Constantine of 310 wished his subjects to believe about their monarch and his right to rule. {60}
The orator beings by revealing a closely guarded secret: there flows in the veins of Constantine the blood of Claudius, who defeated the Goths when they poured over the Danube and through the Hellespont, and thus first restored order to the Roman Empire. {61} (Significantly, Constantine’s precise relationship to Claudius is not vouchsafed: the inventors of the pedigree vacillated between grandfather and great-uncle.) {62}
Pastor John’s note: equals a lie? (in reference to the “pedigree”)
Constantine, the orator continues, accompanied his father on his last expedition, when Constantius sought nor merely a triumph in Britain but a closer approach to the gods who were summoning him to their midst. When the heavenly temples opened to receive the dying emperor, Jupiter welcomed him and asked whom he desired to name as his successor. The gods ratified Constantius’ choice of Constantine by unanimous verdict. The terrestrial proclamation followed. As soon as Constantius departed this earth, all his army and all his subjects fixed on Constantine as their new emperor, despite an obvious and emphatic reluctance which led him (so the disingenuous orator avers) to mount a horse and attempt to flee.
Quote ID: 1566
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 36
Section: 3C
The speech also contains another disconcerting element - a vision attributed to Constantine. On his way to Massilia, the emperor made a brief diversion to “the fairest temple in the world” - presumably, since it was a temple of Apollo, the shrine of Apollo Grannus at Grand. {70} There (so the orator asserts, in words which betray the fiction) Constantine saw Apollo, accompanied by Victory, offering him four laurel crowns which each signified thirty years of success, and which together promised him as long a life as a man could enjoy. {71} Better still, Constantine recognized himself in Apollo: young, handsome, joyful, a bringer of salvation, the world ruler whose advent Virgil foretold. {72}Pastor John’s note: Another one? (in reference to the vision attributed to Constantine)
Quote ID: 1567
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 36
Section: 3C
The orator, who came from Autun, was alert to the possibility that his native city, with its grove, temple, and spring of Apollo, might benefit from Constantine’s recent adoption of Sol or Apollo as his patron deity. {76}
Quote ID: 1568
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 36/37
Section: 2B2,3C
In the ideology of the Tetrarchy, Constantius was both Herculius and, at least while Caesar, under the special protection of Sol Invictus, conventionally identified with Apollo. {77} In the early years of his reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised his especial patron as Mars, the god of war. {78} In 310, however, the coinage of Constantine replaces Mars, with Sol–a change clearly connected with the usurpation of Maximian. {79} In the new political situation, the change had clear advantages. Since Sol was the god who protected Constantius, emphasis on Sol stressed Constantine’s status as his father’s heir; {80} devotion to Apollo, the patron of culture and of the emperor Augustus, would appeal to the civilized parts of Gaul–and solar monotheism was far less objectionable than the normal pagan pantheon to the Christians, who formed an influential section of Constantine’s subjects.
Quote ID: 1569
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 120
Section: 3C
As a matter of fact banning books had already begun before the Council of Nicaea, just after the founding of Constantinopole, when Constantine initiated an Index of banned books. The first book he put on it was the hated writing of Porphyry, Against the Christians. The writings of Arius were added not much later.
Quote ID: 8162
Time Periods: ?
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 191
Section: 3C,4B
When Constantine turned the impending war against Licinius into a Christian crusade, he happily united personal conviction with political advantage. A pagan emperor could no longer govern without the acquiescence and good will of his Christian subjects. {5}
Quote ID: 1600
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 209
Section: 3C
The detailed provisions following this general statement remedy the effects of Licinius’ policy toward the Christians. Constantine recalls to their homeland Christians who had been exiled, discharges those, presumably priests, who had been enrolled in city councils as a punishment, and restores those deprived of their property to their homes, to their families, and to their former wealth. Christians deported to deserted islands shall return from penury and degradation to freedom and security, those condemned to forced labor shall return to a normal, leisurely existence, and any who have forfeited liberty and privileges shall at once resume their lost status in society. Those who were expelled from the army because of their faith may choose either their former rank or an honorable discharge. Christians of high birth who were degraded and then condemned to toil in imperial woolen mills or linen factories or to be slaves of the treasury, shall recover their freedom, honors, and status, and all those of whatever station who have been enslaved shall again be free.
Quote ID: 1609
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 210
Section: 3C
Constantine soon followed his initial letters to his new subjects with actions establishing Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire.Christians received preference in official appointments, and pagan magistrates, whether provincial governors, vicarii of dioceses, or praetorian prefects, were forbidden to sacrifice before commencing official business. { 8} Moreover, Constantine instructed provincial governors and bishops to cooperate in providing churches in which the numerous converts he expected as a result of his victory might worship. He wrote to each bishop (or at least to each metropolitan), urging him to restore churches damaged in the persecution, to enlarge existing buildings, and to construct new ones where needed. Constantine subsidized the cost from imperial funds, directing governors to supply money to the bishops on demand. {9}
The political circumstances of 324 enabled Constantine to take a still more momentous step. Throughout the cities of the East, many prominent supporters of Licinius were killed, either with or without the formality of a trial, when the persecuted took revenge, as they had after the fall of Maximinus. {10} Paganism was now a discredited cause. Constantine forbade the erection of cult statutes, the consultation of pagan oracles, divination of any sort, and sacrifice to the gods under any circumstances. {11} A change so sudden, so fundamental, so total shocked pagans. There were probably complaints and protests to the emperor, perhaps even formal petitions.
Quote ID: 1610
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 211
Section: 3C
In this document, a justification of Constantine’s policy guaranteeing that pagans may continue to perform traditional cults and rituals (from pg. 210) {12} Constantine defines a policy which he was to maintain until his death. Christianity is the emperor’s religion, and Christians can expect him to give them preferential treatment. {13}[Footnote 12] For the standard interpretation, H. Dorries, Das Selbstzeugnis Kaiser Konstantins (Abh. Gottingen, Phil. -hist. Kl.3 34, 1954), 51 ff. It depends on dating the document to October 324 (following O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Papste fur die Jahre 311 bis 476 n. Chr. [Stuttgart, 1919], 174) and forgetting or disbelieving the ban on sacrifice (VC 2.45.1). Eusebius indicates a clear temporal order: first the letter quoted in 24-42, then the measures described in 44-46, and later still (47.1) the letter quoted in 48-60. Moreover, Constantine’s reference to the deaths of the persecuting emperors and their eternal punishment in hell appears to presuppose the execution of Licinius c. April 325 (2.54).
Quote ID: 1611
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 211
Section: 3C
Also prohibited were certain sorts of attack on Christianity; Porphyry hadoverstepped the permissible bounds, and Constantine ordered all copies of Against the Christians to be burned, prescribing the death penalty for any who furtively retained the work. {14}
In many matters, Constantine showed a caution which has often seemed to imply a policy of religious toleration. He would not risk rebellion or civil disobedience, and in Italy and the West, where he had been emperor long before 324, he made no serious attempt to enforce the prohibition of sacrifice which Eusebius attests for the East. {15}
Constantine subsidized the travels of a priest of the Eleusinian mysteries who visited the tombs of the kings in Egyptian Thebes, welcomed a pagan philosopher at court, and honored a priest of Apollo at Delphi for conspicuous devotion to the imperial house. {16}
Quote ID: 1612
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 212
Section: 3C
But he allowed them to worship their traditional gods only in the Christian sense of that word, not according to the traditional forms hallowed by antiquity. The emperor made the distinction underlying his policy explicit when he answered a petition from the Umbrian town of Hispellum requesting permission to build a temple of the Gens Flavia. Constantine granted the request but specified that the shrine dedicated to the imperial family must never be “polluted by the deceits of any contagious superstition.” {17} From 324 onward Constantine consistently evinced official disapproval of the sacrifices and other cultic acts which constituted the essence of Greco-Roman paganism: Christianity was now the established religion of the Roman Empire and its ruler, and paganism should now conform to Christian patterns of religious observance.Constantine marked his victory over Licinius by founding a new city to be his capital. His action, though obviously also symbolic in other ways, had a religious dimension. The new capital was to be a Christian city in which Christian emperors could hold court in an ambience untainted by the buildings, rites, and practices of other religions.
….
The emperor named it “New Rome”, but most of his subjects preferred to call it Constantinople after its founder. {20}
Quote ID: 1613
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 214
Section: 3C
In September 324 Licinius was sent to Thessalonica, with a promise of safety. {41} Some time later he was strangled, in circumstances which remain unclear. {42} The official version represented his death as merited punishment: Licinius was plotting insurrection, and Constantine’s timely action prevented a resumption of civil war. {43}
Quote ID: 1617
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 214
Section: 3C
Since Licinius posed a threat as long as he lived, Constantine had him killed - probably together with his son, the former Caesar, a boy of nine. {48}
Quote ID: 1618
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 217
Section: 3C,2E4
The Council of Nicaea had much other business and remained in session for another month. It was perhaps Constantine himself who had asked the council to determine the proper date of Easter. He took a prominent part in the discussion, {83} and afterward wrote a circular letter communicating the decision to the churches of each province in Syria and Palestine.
Quote ID: 1625
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 217
Section: 3C,2E4
The council shared the emperor’s view that to allow different Easters in different places was absurd and sinful, and it legislated for uniformity, ordering all churches everywhere to adopt the calculation which prevailed throughout the West, Asia Minor, and Egypt.
Quote ID: 1626
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 219
Section: 3C
Before the bishops departed from Nicaea, Constantine conferred on them a signal honor. On 25 July 325 the celebration of the emperor’s vicennalia began in nearby Nicomedia. {102} To mark the anniversary, Constantine invited all the bishops to a banquet; they came to the palace, swept past the soldiers standing guard with drawn swords, and feasted with the emperor - like the apostles surrounding Christ in paradise. {103}Constantine believed that sexual misdemeanors merited the harshest treatment, and his legislation removing legal disabilities from celibates sometimes seems to regard even marriage as sinful. {108} In 322, when a grandchild was born, he pardoned all criminals except murderers, practitioners of magic, and adulterers. {109}
[Footnote 108] CTh 8.16.1.
Quote ID: 1628
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 220
Section: 3C
The truth behind the accusations against Crispus and Albinus seems forever lost. It is clear, nevertheless, that Fausta or her agents must have played a large role in securing Crispus’ condemnation: by the death of Crispus, Fausta’s own sons lost a rival, and Constantine can only have executed his son on evidence which appeared irrefragable. {122}The sequel ineluctably implies that Crispus was falsely accused.
Quote ID: 1629
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 221
Section: 3C
The emperor then (it must be assumed) confronted Fausta and accused her of deceiving him, but it is not clear that he formally tried her. Fausta went into the caldarium of baths in the imperial palace. The room was heated far beyond the normal temperature; she suffocated in the steam and was carried out a corpse. Her death appears to have been suicide under compulsion. {124}
Quote ID: 1630
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 224
Section: 2D3A,3C
The Christianity which now constituted the established religion of the Roman Empire was of an exclusive type. From 312, Constantine confined his largess and fiscal privileges to Christians belonging to the Catholic church. {1} Further, when the Donatists finally refused to acknowledge a Catholic bishop of Carthage vindicated by councils of bishops and by the emperor himself, Constantine treated their schism as a crime and confiscated their property. {2} The victory of 324 permitted Constantine to make the principle underlying this decision explicit and universal. He legislated an end to all heretical sects. A letter explicitly addressed “to heretics” was publicly displayed. In it Constantine insulted Novatianists, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulianists, Montanists, and all other heretics and declared their conduct intolerable. He ordained that they no longer meet, even in private houses, that their houses of prayer be surrendered to the Catholic church, and that any other real property they owned be confiscated. {3}
Quote ID: 1632
Time Periods: ?
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 245
Section: 2C,3C
In 307, on his promotion from Caesar to Augustus, Constantine automatically assumed the title of pontifex maximus, which he never relinquished until he symbolically resigned the imperial power on his deathbed. {2} Nor did Constantine’s immediate successors discard the title, although they too were Christians. {3}
Quote ID: 1645
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 246
Section: 3C
Constantine had made no serious attempt to enforce it a law prohibiting sacrifice in the West. Later still, (probably in 343), Firmicus Maternus addressed a pamphlet On the Error of Profane Religions to the emperors Constantius and Constans. {7}. . . . he entreats the emperors to stamp out pagan practices, which still persist, to seize the ornaments which adorn pagan temples, to melt down cult statues, to confiscate dedications in gold and silver, and to use the proceeds to mint money for the government to spend. {8}
Quote ID: 1646
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 246/247
Section: 3C
The victorious Constantine, therefore, could forbid pagan sacrifice, knowing that his Christian subjects would enforce the law wherever possible. {15} Moreover, eastern pagans soon discovered that their new master would not allow them to retain all their shrines or any of their temple treasures.Pastor John’s note: Not west!
….
The proceeds of this systematic confiscation were enormous; four decades later a writer claimed that as a result gold coins, instead of bronze, came into use for the most trivial commercial transactions. {17}
Quote ID: 1647
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 247/248
Section: 3C
When Constantine ordered the inhabitants of Heliopolis to desist from ritual prostitution, he also urged them to adopt chastity and belief in God. More important, he began to build the first church in the city, and he provided, through the new bishop and his clergy, funds to support the poor–and to encourage them to become Christians. {22} Such redirection of religious sentiment, combined with material inducements to conversion, can be documented elsewhere and should be presumed typical. {23}
Quote ID: 1648
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 248
Section: 2E1,3C
A shrine of Aphrodite occupied the site a basilica built over the site of the crucifixion and what was believed to be Christ’s tomb until Constantine ordered its demolition. Excavations were made under the ruins until a tomb was discovered, which appears to have contained not a body, but some wood, which its finders identified as the cross on which Christ was crucified. Constantine, and Christians in general, hailed the discovery as manifest proof of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Quote ID: 1649
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 252
Section: 3C
Admittedly, Constantine allowed the Jews to set foot in Jerusalem again, but only on one day each year, in order to bewail their fate. {73} More generally, Constantine translated Christian prejudice against Jews into legal disabilities. He forbade Jews to own Christian slaves and to seek or accept converts to Judaism, and he prescribed that any Jew who attempted forcibly to prevent conversions from Judaism to Christianity should be burned alive. {74}
Quote ID: 1651
Time Periods: ?
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 253
Section: 3C
Despite Sopater’s paganism, the emperor held him in high esteem, conversed long with him, and used him as an adviser when conducting public business. However, one autumn the grain ships were delayed by the weather, and the hungry crowd in the hippodrome evinced its displeasure with the emperor. Sopater’s enemies pounced. They accused the philosopher of fettering the winds. Constantine condemned Sopater to be beheaded (perhaps about the same time as Athanaius’ enemies secured his removal by accusing him of threatening the grain supply). {81}
Quote ID: 1652
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 258
Section: 3C
. . . . and shortly after Constantine conquered the East in 324, the kingdom of Iberia in the Caucasus embraced Christianity and a Roman alliance. {142}
Quote ID: 1657
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 259
Section: 3C
He constructed the Church of the Holy Apostles to serve as both a mausoleum and a shrine.….
Inside, in two equal rows, were twelve empty sarcophagi, one for each apostle. In secret, Constantine prepared a sumptuous sarcophagus to hold his own body and to stand in the center; he would thus be associated with the apostles by any who came to pray there. {152}
Quote ID: 1658
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 259
Section: 3A4C,3C
Constantine resolved to campaign against the Persians himself, and he proposed to wage the war as a Christian crusade. He solicited bishops (who agreed with alacrity) to accompany the army, he prepared a tent in the shape of a church to accompany him everywhere, and he intended, before invading Persia, to be baptized in the waters of the River Jordan. {147} Persian ambassadors arrived at Constantinople during the winter of 336/7, seeking to avoid war. The emperor repulsed their overtures. {148}
Quote ID: 8161
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 273
Section: 3C
Born out of wedlock (and of a low-class mother), Constantine kept a mistress who bore his eldest son. This son he put to death, in defiance of the laws of nature, on suspicion of seducing his wife, and when his mother objected, he turned on his wife and ordered her to be suffocated while bathing.
Quote ID: 1661
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 274
Section: 3C
Edward Gibbon attempted to “delineate a just portrait” of Constantine “by the impartial union of those defects which are confessed by his warmest admirers, and of those virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies,” and he based his assessment on the contrasted narratives of Eusebius’ Life of Constantine and Zosimus. {16}
Quote ID: 1664
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 8
Section: 3C
Here begins a process that leads to the institution of caesaropapism in the East and, in the West, to a less easy alliance, the traces of which lie but thinly beneath the contours of modern Europe.
Quote ID: 1666
Time Periods: 47
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 9
Section: 3C,3A2
...a religion based on love and charity adopted the instruments of its former persecutors.
Quote ID: 1667
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 10/11
Section: 2E6,3C
It was this victory in 312, according to Eusebius, which led Constantine to adopt “the salutary sign” and attach himself with all the fervor of a new convert to the faith of the apostles.….
Within a year, he was working with the bishop of Rome to settle a church dispute, the Donatist controversy, and little more than a decade later he would take the unprecedented step of calling a worldwide assembly of bishops, the historic Council of Nicaea.
Quote ID: 1668
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 11
Section: 3A1,3C
At the same time, Constantine endowed the bishops with unprecedented legal and juridical privileges.
Quote ID: 1669
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 15
Section: 2B2,3C
...his own father, the emperor Constantius I, had “honored the one Supreme God during his whole life” and ruled with both honor and success. Thus, he realized that this One God had been “the Savior and Protector of his empire, and the Giver of every good thing.”
Quote ID: 1671
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 21
Section: 1A,3C
Given the legacy of religious strife and bigotry that had divided Europe since the Reformation and the resistance of the church to their call for looser controls, it is understandable that they saw intolerance as a quality inherent to Christian belief, a conclusion that seemed proven by the history of the church in the Roman Empire. Gibbon shared these view, and they clearly influenced his conclusion that the fall of Rome was caused by “barbarism and religion.” {24} That intolerance was inherent to Christianity seemed beyond dispute. Not only were converts obliged to renounce belief in all other gods—an immediate contrast to the inclusive spirit of polytheism, as Gibbon so aptly noted—but also within decades of Constantine’s conversion Christian emperors began a violent suppression of variant beliefs that had continued seemingly unabated to his own day.This correlation gave the hypothesis of inherent Christian intolerance a semblance of scientific objectivity, making it a powerful paradigm that continues to be used right down to the present—so powerful, in fact, that it masks what should be an obvious flaw: for three centuries prior to Constantine, the only persecutions known to the Roman world were those that Christians suffered and pagans sponsored. Enlightenment ideology was predisposed to discount this situation...
Quote ID: 1675
Time Periods: 456
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 109
Section: 3C
The Christians whom Constantine knew were no little group of transplanted fishermen. Possibly influenced by the example of the bishops with whom he had to work, Constantine himself characterized the apostles not as men drawn from humble stations but as “the wisest among men” and “the best men of their age.” {61}
Quote ID: 1678
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 299
Section: 3C
It is never wise to separate political from religious thinking in the ancient world, particularly in the case of a figure like Constantine.
Quote ID: 1683
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 72/73/74
Section: 2E1,3C,3C2
Constantine one night was told in a vision to paint on his soldiers’ shields the sign of God, which would bring victory. It is described as the letter CHI, turned (not X but +), and the top in a loop (symbol). He followed instructions, equipping a few score of his guard with the sign, we may suppose-hardly all forty thousand!Lactantius is the source followed here.
….
He was a devout Christian; yet he disposes of the whole miracle in thirty-one words. Pagan orators of 313 and 321, to whom we will return, speak only vaguely and briefly of divine aid to Constantine; a triumphal arch erected in 315 at the senate’s orders connects the victory not with Christ but with the Sun-God.
Among Christian sources, Eusebius has nothing to say about the vision in a work otherwise receptive to the miraculous (the Ecclesiastical History of 325), and in 336, in a long oration, he lays stress on the sign of the cross as bringer of victory, and in Constantine’s presence refers to “the divine vision of the Savior which has often shone on you”; but he never puts cross and visions together in any reference to the events of 312. The emperor himself ignores them in contexts where they might naturally find a place, and an intimate of his son’s (Cyril of Jerusalem) in mid-century assures Constantius II that the sight of a cross marked in the sky by a recent meteor is a greater grace than even the true cross that his father found in the Holy Land. The passage, of course, fairly cries out for mention of Constantine’s vision. Farther removed, Ambrose knew nothing of it; Rufinus puts it in the setting of a dream. With Rufinus, we reach the fifth century. The miracle has simply had no impact. It has passed unnoticed among real men. But it was otherwise in the world of books, in which by this time much fuller versions circulated.
They originated in Eusebius’ effusive Life of Constantine, composed after the subject’s death.
…
In 312, at some unspecified spot seemingly in Gaul, and in answer to prayer, he saw the sign of the cross blazing in the afternoon sky, and around it the words, “In this, conquer.” His entire army saw it, too.
…
if the skywriting was witnessed by forty thousand men, the true miracle lies in their unbroken silence about it. We may compare another instance of intervention from on high. A violent rainstorm descended once on Marcus Aurelius’ enemies out of the blue and drove them off the battlefield. This was really seen by thousands. Marcus Aurelius, on coins and relief sculpture, advertised this proof that Jupiter fought on his side. Why did Constantine not do likewise?
Quote ID: 1878
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 74
Section: 3C
Discussion of Constantine’s conversion may be deferred for a little; but there was a time before 312 when he was not, and after when he was, a Christian.
Quote ID: 1879
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 75
Section: 3C
No test of Christianity versus paganism was involved, no crusade. Not religious systems but the strength of gods to determine victory was tested.
Quote ID: 1880
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 109
Section: 3C
At the outset of his conversion-indeed, for a long time after 312-the central question to show itself was, Conversion to what?
Quote ID: 1881
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 111/112
Section: 3C
Writing about the Donatists in 314, Constantine mentions Christ; but several considerations, and several modern scholars, suggest that the letter was drafted or edited by churchmen in the court, not wholly by Constantine himself; otherwise he makes no reference to Christ until 321. That peculiarity deserves emphasis.….
As late as 321, again, Nazarius the rhetor invokes the impulse of the divinity (divino instinctu) to explain the marvelous deeds of the conqueror; again, he detects the operation of “heavenly favor,” without source or name; and, to bring Maxentius out from the safety of the city, again Nazarius tells of the intervention of some faceless god befriending Constantine,
Quote ID: 1883
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 112
Section: 2B,3C
Constantine remained loyal to Sol for more than a decade after his conversion; or at least his coins, with all the authority and perhaps the distortion of headlines in a government-controlled newspaper, continued to celebrate that god, though with diminishing honor, frequency, and emphasis, after all others had disappeared for good.
Quote ID: 1885
Time Periods: 34
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 112
Section: 2B2,3C
Vague, evasive phrases bridging the gap between paganism and Christianity and thus facilitating spiritual movement from one to the other still served to link even such men as Anullinus to their master long after Constantine’s change of faith had become perfectly clear to everybody.Monotheism under the presidency of the Sun; a family background somewhat sympathetic to Christianity; a current religion vocabulary of circumlocutions and ambiguities;
Quote ID: 1886
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 120
Section: 2B2,3C
Inevitably the officers of the Church adopted certain distinctive features of secular officialdom for their costumes, for processions, and for address. Inevitably they presided over worship in surroundings reminiscent of a palace; increasingly in Christian art Christ borrows the ceremonial of imperial reception, oration, and adventus scenes. The Church, thanks to Constantine, had attained a new wealth and public prominence. To express it, there was only one obvious language of magnificence, the language of the imperial cult and court. But in that fact was implicit the danger of a friend becoming a master.
Quote ID: 1889
Time Periods: 456
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 159/160
Section: 3C
It never occurred to him, nor, of course, to a great many ecclesiastical leaders, to wonder whether wealth, grandeur, honorific titles, endowments, silver candelabras, marble and mosaics grew naturally out of the inwardness and previous history of Christianity. Inwardness was something on which he never wasted much time.
Quote ID: 1890
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 160
Section: 3A4B,3C
In dealing with the Church of Africa, his favor was characteristically directed to the official structure. Orthodox priests were to enjoy certain valuable immunities.….
Certain monks and nuns received individual grants of food from public storehouses. Clerical exemption from municipal munera was extended into Italy; and in 316, in a law addressed to Ossius (perhaps because inspired by him), slave-owners received permission to free their slaves not only before secular officials but through a far less complicated attestation in the presence of a bishop. Episcopal courts were soon authorized to hear any civil case, by change of venue from other courts and without right of further appeal. They became, that is, courts of last instance.
Quote ID: 1891
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 164
Section: 2B2,3C
He encouraged Christianity in the army, without any sudden success. Sunday was marked off for rest and worship, and for the recitation of a prayer in Latin personally composed by the emperor.….
- very much a soldier’s prayer, and one that a pagan could recite without heartburning, especially on the appointed Sun-day, dies Solis.
Quote ID: 1892
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 192
Section: 3C
When thwarted, his rage burst forth in shouts and imprecations. “Let the greedy hands of the civil secretaries forbear, let them forbear, I say,” begins a law of 331 directed at administrative venality. And it goes on, “If after due warning they do not cease, they shall be cut off by the sword.” He means it literally. Or again, for parents accessory to the seduction of their daughter, “the penalty shall be that the mouth and throat of those who offered inducement to evil shall be closed by pouring in molten lead.”
Quote ID: 1893
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 192
Section: 3C
The emperor’s ideas of Christianity make sense only when they are considered in a much wider context than the religious:
Quote ID: 1894
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 193
Section: 3A4,3C
Constantine invoked the death penalty quite freely, but so had his predecessors and so did his sons after him.
Quote ID: 1895
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 224
Section: 2A3,2B2,3C
The Church had had no occasion to establish ceremonies in honor of a deceased Christian emperor, and pagan traditions rose to the surface. A comet was duly said to have foretold Constantine’s death. In a henceforward Christianized motif derived from paganism, coins depicted him drawn upwards by a hand extended from heaven. On his birthday, and on the birthday of the city that he had founded, his image received special veneration; to the statue on a porphyry column in the forum of Constantinople, Christians offered sacrifices, prayers, and incense. It was simply impossible to think of him as in any respect less than the deified emperors of paganism-his own father, or Marcus Aurelius, or any other.
Quote ID: 1896
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 236
Section: 3C
Sarcophagus reliefs of Tetrarchic and Constantinian times show the influence that might be exerted. Christ sits on a throne, his feet on a footstool, exactly like the emperor. A petitioner approaches on his knees, head veiled, exactly as to the emperor. Sometimes he offers to Christ some gift in a hand humbly covered in a fold of his robe, exactly according to palace usages.2A1
Quote ID: 1897
Time Periods: 4
Constantine by Ramsay Macmullen
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 69 Page: 238/239
Section: 3C
An idea of God’s gifts is reflected in the evils that Constantine laid at the Devil’s door; rioting, strife in the streets, bitter dispute, bad harvests, pretenders, and all the works of witchcraft. One must adjust one’s expectations of the effects of conversion to the man and the age.Few of the essential elements of Christian belief interested Constantine very much - neither God’s mercy nor man’s sinfulness, neither damnation nor salvation, neither brotherly love nor, needless to say, humility.
Quote ID: 1898
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 70
Section: 3C
Constantine’s bodyguard, too, was almost wholly ’barbarian’. This was a calvalry unit unit known as the scholae palatinae.
Quote ID: 1689
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 88
Section: 3C
Far more serious than the collatio gelbalis was the callatio lustralis, also known as chrysargyron, the gold and silver tax, because it could be paid in either metal. It was imposed on manufacturers and merchants, and apparently assessed on their own persons, and on the persons of their families and staff (including slaves and apprentices), and on their captial equipment: tools, implements, and milling requisites in the case of manufacturers, and ships, wagons, and draught animals in the case of merchants.Pastor John’s note: excessive taxation
Quote ID: 1692
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 98
Section: 3C,4B
By imperial oppression, then, or under the ineluctable circumstances which required such stringent measures, the Roman world had been transformed. Small farmers had ceased to exist, and in their place there was mass cultivation by slave or serf labour. Once again the rich - the large landowners - had prevailed, by mercilessly exploiting the poor, whom economic necessity had forced to flock on to their lands.And it was Constantine who played the chief part in completing and formalizing this situation.
Quote ID: 1693
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 99
Section: 3C,4B
The houses of the powerful were crammed full and their splendour enhanced to the destruction of the poor, the poorer classes of course being held down by force.
Quote ID: 1694
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 99
Section: 3C
Such was the general demoralization, but the trouble went further than social collapse: it amounted to a general unnerving of the will, a paralysis of character, a failure of strength.It was a hollow mockery, then, that each man was told he could do what his soul desired, and that Constantine and his friends repeatedly called him the ’restorer of freedom’.
What made matters even worse, a good deal worse, was the widespread corruption- ‘the universality of the employment of power, public and private alike, as a source of profit’.
This corruption was, of course, nothing new. It had been manifest enough in the third century, when inflation had reduced state salaries and wages to such an extent that criminal means had to be used to augment them. It was said that there had been insupportable unfairness under Diocletian, and bribery under Galerius. Maxentius had employed bribes to seduce Severus’ army. Decurions, under Licinius, had corruptly gained equestrian grades. But now, under Constantine, things were no better, and indeed were even worse.
Quote ID: 1695
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 109
Section: 3C
EUTROPIUS declared that Constantine was responsible for many murders of his ’friends’, and this was unmistakably true. There was a long list of victims. For Constantine’s behavior is inexcusable by any standards, and casts a blot on his reputation. Being an absolute autocrat, he believed that he could kill anyone.
Quote ID: 1697
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 110
Section: 3C
But something even worse, much worse, had happened five years earlier, or rather two things: Constantine’s execution of his eldest son Flavius Julius Crispus, followed by the execution of his second wife Flavia Maxima Fausta as well.
Quote ID: 1698
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 112
Section: 3C
Eutropius notes simply, ’being forced to it by necessity, he executed that exceptional man’, and Victor, ’of his children, he who was born the eldest was judicially executed by his father for an undisclosed reason’. Modern writers are equally puzzled. ’What precisely Crispus’s crime was has never been clearly established, and is probably now unascertainable.’
Quote ID: 1699
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 113
Section: 3C
Whether that was the case or not, it was true that the emperor was liable to sudden changes of mind, and before very long he came to the conclusion that he had made a disastrous mistake, and that Crispus had not committed or planned an offence after all, so that by an appalling act of murder Constantine had deprived himself of his eldest son quite wrongly and unnecessarily: he said to have erected a golden statue ’to the son whom I unjustly condemned’.
Quote ID: 1700
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 114
Section: 3C
So Constantine murdered both his eldest son and his wife.
Quote ID: 1701
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 115
Section: 3C
As for Constantine himself, the deeds could well have helped to enhance in his personality the features of the savage, degenerate tyrant which he seemed to Julian the Apostate and Edward Gibbon, particularly in his somber last years.
Quote ID: 1702
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 116
Section: 3C
Constantine’s principal claims to fame, among subsequent generations, were two: his conversion of the empire to Christianity, and his creation of Constantinople (on the site of Byzantium), which was to become the capital of the eastern Roman empire and then, for many more centuries, the capital of the Byzantine empire that succeeded it.
Quote ID: 1703
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 147
Section: 3C,2E5
For it was by God’s grace, and by this alone, that Constantine believed he had won the victory over Maxentius: the ubiquitous, winged figure of Victoria became God’s angel.
Quote ID: 1717
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 148
Section: 3C
Constantine’s court reflected the heavenly court (a Hellenistic idea), and disobedience to the emperor was a sacrilege, because he ruled by the Grace of God, of whom he was an imitation (mimesis) upon earth.
Quote ID: 1718
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 148/149
Section: 3C
Such were the attributes of the Christian God whom Constantine venerated, and in the fetching stories about Jesus that one finds, for example, in the Gospel according to St Luke he took no interest at all. Indeed, Jesus’ doings did not seem to him of any importance: nor, even, did the person of Jesus himself, since, although Constantine felt able to quote, or rather misquote, Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue as forecasting the Incarnation (in his Oration to the Assembly of the Saints, and a Nicaea) he also rebuked his half-sister Constantia for excessively revering what was believed to be a likeness of Jesus, whose actual existence on earth as a human being did not seem to him a matter worth dwelling upon at all.Nor would he have been able to see the point of Jesus’s Crucifixion, at least without some mental acrobatics. It was embarassing, to say the least, that God’s own son had been subjected to this humiliating end, and contemporary Christian art avoids the whole question, because it seemed to involve such ignominy; and for this reason Constantine abolished crucifixion as a punishment.
And he encouraged his mother Helena to obtain alleged pieces of the True Cross in the Holy Land.
Quote ID: 1719
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 150
Section: 3C
Constantine and his contemporaries frequently refer to the Devil, and he was portrayed on the entrance gable of his palace at Constantinople.
Quote ID: 1720
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 150
Section: 3C
For the emperor, in addition to seeing the Christian faith as God’s will, also realized that it was useful. Mention has already been made of the Christians’ admirable social cohesion: theirs was the only organized force in the empire, aside from the army. And its enemies had come to bad ends. Edward Gibbon saw that Constantine realized the utility of Christianity, but believed that this realization was derived from his avarice and ambition. Anyway, the emperor saw that it could, and would, be useful. For he liked the idea of backing Christianity because he wanted to have its effective organization on his side.
Quote ID: 1721
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 151
Section: 3C
Indeed, that was his dominant aim, to achieve, through the adherents of this religion, unity in the Roman empire-although the ’heresies’ disappointed this aim.
Quote ID: 1722
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 151
Section: 3C
Such people are dangerous, and impossible to argue with. If they want to do something, they know it is with God’s support. That is what Disraeli complained about Gladstone, that ’he had God up his sleeve’.
Quote ID: 1723
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 151
Section: 3C
Yet this conclusion was unjustifiable, since Constantine genuinely felt that he was in continuous touch with God. When he was tracing the boundaries of the new Constantinople, and someone told him he had gone far enough, he answered, ’I shall go on until He who is walking ahead of me stops.’
Quote ID: 1724
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 151
Section: 3C
flatterers even ventured to say that he was a new Jesus. Bishops dining with him felt they were like the Apostles at Jesus’ table.
Quote ID: 1725
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 151/152
Section: 3C
Yet Eusebius, in his Praise of Constantine, almost raised him to this level. and even if that seemed excessive he had no objection, as the situation developed, to being ranked with Christ’s Apostles, as isapotolos. Indeed, he arranged to be buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, with monuments and relics of the Twelve Apostles around him. This made it seem that he was greater than they had been; or, at the very least, that he saw himself as the Thirteenth of them. It was therefore permissible to see a resemblance between Constantine and Peter; and Christian hymn-writers likened him to Paul.
Quote ID: 1726
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 155
Section: 3C
The Cross first appears, modestly, on rare coins of 314.
Quote ID: 1727
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 156
Section: 3C
In 313 CONSTANTINE and Licinius, jointly, issued the so-called Edict of Toleration but going a good deal further by granting positive advantages and privileges (including the recovery of losses, and recognition of legal rights) to the Christian community.
Quote ID: 1728
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 157
Section: 3C
....among the other things which we saw would benefit the majority of men we were convinced that first of all those conditions by which reverence for the Divinity is secured should be put in order by us to the end that we might give to the Christians and to all men the right to follow freely whatever religion each had wished, so that thereby whatever of Divinity there be in the heavenly seat quicquid divinitatis in sede caelest may be favorable and propitious to us and to all those who are placed under our authority.
Quote ID: 1729
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 157
Section: 3C
....namely our view should be that to no one whatsoever should we deny liberty to follow either the religion of the Christians or any other cult which of his own free choice he has thought to be best adapted for himself, in order that the supreme Divinity Summa Divinitas, to whose service we render our free obedience, may bestow upon us in all things his wanted favour and benevolence.
Quote ID: 1730
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 158
Section: 3C
....every man to worship as he will. This has been done by us so that we should not seem to have done dishonour to any religion.
Quote ID: 1731
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 159
Section: 3C
It must have been a striking experience for the clergy to become the recipients of this unlimited generosity from Constantine, and to find a much wider and richer social life at their disposal than had been available before.True, the emperor completely controlled the bishops himself. His dominance over them, embodied in the statement ’my will must be considered binding’ - which some earlier Christians would never have accepted - was a prime example of that monarchical control of the church described as Caesaropapism.
Quote ID: 1733
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 159
Section: 2C,3C
And it was he himself who chose every bishop when a vacancy arose.
Quote ID: 1734
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 160
Section: 2C,3C
The top clerics, the bishops, received special attention, and were employed to pronounce on religious issues rather as earlier emperors had used pontifices and augurs; and they obtained judicial powers as well. Indeed, they found themselves among the emperor’s principal advisers; and, although he himself had appointed them, he treated them with respect, even asserting the ’God has given you power to judge us also’.
Quote ID: 1735
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 160
Section: 3C
Those at court dined with Constantine - like Apostles surrounding Christ in paradise, said Eusebius - and some were haughty and avaricious intriguers. As the ecclesiastics took over the interests and values of the governmental hierarchy, and churches became endowed with great wealth, Christian art and architecture increasingly borrowed the grandeur of imperial ceremonial.
Quote ID: 1736
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 161
Section: 3C
Even if Constantine approved of the preaching of hermits such as St Anthony (c.251-356) against the Arian ’heresy’, he cannot really have applauded eremitic and monastic asceticism, which operated against his ideal of unity based on the control of the church by the state.
Quote ID: 1737
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 161
Section: 3C
For, apart from his deep emotional involvement, the main reason why he had favoured Christianity, as we have seen, was because he believed that it would encourage unity in the empire.
Quote ID: 1738
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 161
Section: 3C
Constantine deplored this ridiculous proliferation of dissension, believing that imperial unity required unity of creeds.
Quote ID: 1739
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 163
Section: 3C
For the history of the Christians under the later Roman empire was gravely damaged by the savage warfare which raged with their own ranks, deserved the censure of Julian, and has been described as one of the most intolerable spectacles in all history. ’Such events seem to many of us to cast thorough discredit upon the claim of Christianity to constitute a divine revelation.’ This conclusion, used by Voltaire and Gibbon to explain the fall of the western empire, can scarcely be contested except by blaming what happened upon the activities of the Devil, or by arguing - as Christians, on all sides, did in antiquity, and still disastrously do - that there was, and is, only one authentic Christian church, and that those self-styled Christians who failed to adhere to it cannot be regarded as true Christians at all.
Quote ID: 1740
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 165
Section: 3C
The subsequent history of the affair is tortuous. But two epoch-making events stand out. One was the fact that, at quite an early stage (311-13), the Donatists themselves appealed to Constantine:
Quote ID: 1741
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 167
Section: 3A2A,3C
A second historic aspect of the Donatist schism lay in the fact that, when Constantine saw he could not get rid of it, he had employed forcible coercion (316): for he felt, at the time, that this decision was amply justified:
Quote ID: 1743
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 167
Section: 3A2A,3C
Nevertheless, he had used force: and this did immeasurable harm, and set a bleak precedent for every century to come.
Quote ID: 1744
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 170
Section: 3C
And so after his victory in 324 he produced a flurry of six public statements to explain his Christian purpose. For it was his belief that Christianity was the one force which could effectively bring the jarring elements together. But it must be his own brand of Christianity, for, as we have seen, he issued laws warning against ’heresies’, seeing it as his duty to banish error in religion.
Quote ID: 1751
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 176
Section: 3C,3C1
A decisive point in Athanasius’ fight against the Arians occurred in the same year, when Arius died in a lavatory at Constantinople: which his enemies, such as Athanasius, proclaimed as a sign of God’s anger. But Arius’ death did not end his influence; and indeed Arianism had destroyed imperial unity as completely as Donatism had done, though for different reasons. Constantine’s idea that the adoption of Christianity would unify the empire had proved totally mistaken. And indeed Arianism itself had a significant future, being embraced by the emperor’s own son Constantius II as the best means of accommodating the church to the imperial state:....
Quote ID: 1759
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 177/178
Section: 2B2,3C,4A
...Constantine used to hold a regular ’salon’, a sort of religious-philosophical debating society (the members of which, in so far as they were pagans, must have found his interest in Christianity ridiculous and perhaps humiliating). His encouragement of higher education also implied a continued toleration of paganism. He called his friend Strategius ’Musonianus’, after the Muses. He even gave his churches at Constantinople the names of Greek personifications, such as Eirene (Peace) and Sophia (Wisdom), and the town itself was sometimes called ’Platonopolis’, owing to his admiration of Plato. Constantine also at times described the Christian clergy and monks as ’philosophers’.
Quote ID: 1760
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 178
Section: 2B2,3C
Thus we see him accepting Roman consulships, in the old traditional style, in 307 (in the west), and 312 and 313 and 315, and his Arch shows him sacrificing to the gods. Moreover, he even retained the office of pontifex maximus, a traditional and very pagan part of the imperial titulature.
Quote ID: 1761
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 178
Section: 3C
...(which reminds us that Christians were censured for offering sacrifice to images of Constantine).
Quote ID: 1762
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 178/179
Section: 2B2,3C
The graduality of the removal of paganism from the coinage, or, to speak more exactly, the gradual conversion of pagan concepts into neutral, ambivalent coin-types and inscriptions, demonstrates the care with which Constantine proceeded.
Quote ID: 1763
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 179
Section: 3A2,3C
Let those who are in error be free to enjoy the same peace and quietude as those who believe. Let no one molest another. Let each hold to that which his soul desires, and let him use this to the full.
Quote ID: 1764
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 181
Section: 3C
....(and sometimes resorted to entrail divination himself).
Quote ID: 1765
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 181
Section: 3C
Subversion was also suspected to be a possible outcome of astrology (about which Firmicus Maternus had a lot to say). But Constantine, being highly superstitious, did not actually proceed against the art, and duly consulted astrologers himself (for example, in 326-8).
Quote ID: 1766
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 181
Section: 3C
Constantine may have shared the almost universal belief in magic and wizardry and incantations, but did not like their pagan manifestations: there are no less than eleven fourth-century regulations (constitutiones) condemning the practitioners of occult sciences.
Quote ID: 1767
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 182
Section: 3C
And after the defeat of Licinius in 324 he began - at first in the newly acquired lands of Asia Minor and the east, and then elsewhere as well - to make decisive changes which gradually established the Christian faith as something like the official religion of the Roman empire: which is certainly how his sons and successors interpreted his actions.
Quote ID: 1768
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 182
Section: 3C
’You are bishops within the church. But I have been appointed by God as bishop of what lies outside the church“
Quote ID: 1769
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 183
Section: 3A2,3C
As regards the former of these groups, when he made conquests of German and Sarmatian territory, the treaty agreements that ensued regularly stipulated conversion to Christianity.
Quote ID: 1770
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 184
Section: 2B2,3C
Christianity, too, was apparently behind the elevation of Sunday as a public holiday and day of rest, despite a manifest solar background. ’All magistrates, city-dwellers and artisans’, decreed Constantine in 321, ’are to rest on the venerable day of the Sun, though country-dwellers may without hindrance apply themselves to agriculture...The day celebrated by the veneration of the Sun should not be devoted to the swearing and counter-swearing of litigants, and their ceaseless brawling.
Quote ID: 1771
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 192
Section: 2E3,3C
.....It was usual, moreover, for a Constantinian basilica to be entered from the west, so that the rising sun poured its rays of light upon the celebrating priest as he stood in front of the altar facing the worshippers.
Quote ID: 1773
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 194
Section: 2A3,3C
Constantine covered it with great and wealthy churches, although he did locate most of them outside Rome walls, often near the graves of martyrs, to whose cults he was so especially devoted - ........
Quote ID: 1776
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 203
Section: 2E1,3C
While in Palestine, Helena committed her son, who encouraged and prompted her, to the payment of enormous sums for building churches. And when she left the country, she took with her some pieces of wood which, she was told and believed, had formed the True Cross - a fortunate, though dubious, discovery. In order to find them, she had made enquiries among the local people, who advised her to proceed to a place where ’ancient persecutors’ had built a shrine of the pagan goddess Aphrodite.Stimulated by visions, she ordered that the site should be excavated, whereupon, according to St. Ambrose’s work On the Death of Theodosius (De Obitu Theodosii, 395), three crosses were according to the New Testament, had set up, on the occasion of the Crucifixion of Jesus, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. It next remained to discover which of the three crosses was the one on which Jesus had died. Here Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem came to Helena’s help, by undertaking, with a prayer for God’s help, to place a sick woman on each of the crosses in turn, so that is could then be seen what happened to her on each of the three occasions. When she was placed on the first two crosses, nothing happened. Next, however, she was made to lie on the third cross, whereupon she was healed. That, it was concluded, must have been the True Cross on which Jesus had met his death.
In consequence, Helena built a church on the spot, and lodged parts of the Cross there in silver caskets. The remaining parts she sent to Constantine, together with nails from the same Cross, which was incorporated in the bit of his war-horse.
Quote ID: 1780
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 206
Section: 2B2,3C
.....which was supposed to be the birthplace of Jesus (and pagan women had come there on a fixed date every year to mourn for the death of Adonis).
Quote ID: 1781
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 211
Section: 2A1,3C
Ever since New Testament times baptism had occupied a position of great importance in the Christian community and was regarded as essential to the new birth and to membership of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Quote ID: 1782
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 212
Section: 3C
Surprise has often been expressed, however, that Constantine, who had displayed his adherence to Christianity so much earlier, postponed his baptism until what was virtually his death-bed. Some members of the church deplored the lateness of this decision. But in fact late, last-minute baptism - like adult baptism in general - was not an infrequent phenomenon, because it was strongly felt that after baptism one ought not to commit a sin, and the only way to ensure this was to become baptized when one was not going to live for very much longer. In the words of Edward Gibbon:The sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation.
Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be repeated: to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be recovered.
Quote ID: 1784
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 212
Section: 3C
The truth was different. He delayed his baptism through fear of God. Believing, as he did, in divine anger, he (in common with others, as we have seen, who likewise delayed their baptisms) was terrified about the future of his soul, which would be imperilled if, after baptism, he did anything wrong.
Quote ID: 1785
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 213
Section: 2A1,3C
And so Constantine took off the purple robe of imperial power, was baptized naked (as was the custom) by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, and put on the white vestment which Christian converts wore for a week after their baptism. Catholics became uncomfortable about baptism at the hands of Eusebius of Nicomedia - who was practically an Arian - and invented a story that he was instead baptized by Pope Silvester I of Rome, which is repeated on the inscription upon the Egyptian obelisk in the Piazza di San Laterano. That this is entirely fictitious is one of the certainties in the long but obscure papacy of Silvester (314 - 35).......at the time of the emperor’s baptism Silvester had already been dead for two years.
Quote ID: 1786
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 215
Section: 2B2,3C
Then Constantine was deified (made divus), as his coinage records: a curious indication that his adoption of the Christian faith did not prevent this pagan custom from being retained. The coins celebrating his deification show him, veiled, in a quadriga (reminiscent of the ascent of Elijah - but the chariot was also an attribute of Apollo and the Sun). A hand descends from heaven. Eusebius records the issue of these coins.
Quote ID: 1787
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 223
Section: 3C
One question, however, which cannot fail to disconcert Christians today is his ability to reconcile his new faith with appalling murders, including those of his own kin.Another question which arises is whether, although Constantine regarded himself as the linear descendant of earlier emperors, Edward Gibbon was right to suppose that his conversion of himself and his subjects to Christianity was one of the principal causes of the fall of the western Roman empire, which ceased to exist 139 years after his death. It was Constantine, according to this view, who made this shipwreck inevitable, or, to change the metaphor, opened all the gates to destructive forces.
Quote ID: 1789
Time Periods: ?
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 226
Section: 3C
It is a mocking travesty of justice to call such a murderer Constantine the Great. Or, perhaps not: for what does Greatness mean? Constantine was, as we have seen, a superlative military commander, and a first-rate organizer. He was also an utterly ruthless man, whose ruthlessness extended to the execution of his nearest kin, and who believed that he had God behind him in everything he did. That, surely, it must be repeated, is the stuff of which the most successful leaders are made.
Quote ID: 1790
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 94/95
Section: 3C
If there was shock at the ease with which Constantine defeated and killed Maxentius, there was astonishment at the speed and extent of the newly Christian emperor’s efforts to influence virtually every aspect of his newfound ally, Catholic Christianity--from building new churches to paying clergy out of the state treasury, to intervening in church disputes, to convening councils of bishops and issuing edicts and making their decisions the law of the realm, to helping to determine the date for celebrating Easter, to mandating Sunday as the universal day of worship, to outlawing heresy, to de facto implementation of Eusebius’s “acknowledged books” as the standard Bible of the Catholic Church.Surely some astonishment must be reserved for the role played in all this by the Catholic bishops and theologians at the the time. We look in vain for any record that any bishop or theologian ever objected that Constantine--who was not baptized, had never joined a church, knew little theology, and was not ordained.
Quote ID: 7422
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 95
Section: 3C
The reason appears plain: to a man, they welcomed the emperor’s interventions because they were convinced that he had been given the authority to do all these things by their God. And the reason for that belief is equally obvious: at great risk to himself and to his family, Constantine repeatedly rescued the church from certain destruction and actively sought to support, extend, and enrich the Catholic Church, relentlessly pressing everyone in the Roman empire to convert to Catholic orthodoxy--actions from which the bishops all benefited and for which they were profoundly grateful, to him and to their God.
Quote ID: 1798
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 95
Section: 3C
As that symbiotic relationship grew and matured, what had been the persecuted Church of the Martyrs underwent a period of rapid enculturation during which it shed its original antagonistic, otherworldly posture in favor of the values, concerns, and--if it is not putting the matter too strongly--the god of Mighty Rome. Catholic theology and the church politics became thoroughly imbued with Roman imperial ideology.
Quote ID: 1799
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 114/115
Section: 3C
What were some of the other things this “universal bishop” did?In 321, Constantine decided to standardize Christian worship by making the Roman Sun Day (dies Solis) a legal day of rest so that Christians across the empire would not have to work and could attend worship.
That same year, Constantine issued an edict making it legal to free slaves using Catholic Churches as the place of manumission (instead of the courts)--a major public-relations boon. He also legalized the bequeathing of estates, lands, and other legacies to Catholic churches. Thus the Catholic church began to acquire property on an unprecedented scale.
From the very beginning, in 312, Constantine promoted and encouraged an unprecedented building campaign in magnificent large buildings. In addition to repeated legislation providing for the rebuilding and improvement of house-churches that had been destroyed during the Great Persecution, Constantine provided government funds and valuable space for large, beautifully appointed basilicas in Rome, Nicomedia, and elsewhere.
Far surpassing all previous building activities on behalf of the Christian religion was Constantine’s decision to abandon ancient polytheistic Rome, the old pagan capital of the empire, and to build a new Christian capital at Byzantium on the peninsula overlooking the straits of the Bosporus. It would have glorious new buildings, many of them intended solely for Christian worship. He called it “new Rome”, but his subjects called in Constantinople--“Constantine’s polis”. He did not object.
As part of his relentless campaign to bring everyone into the Christian religion (since that would please the Christian God and cause him to look favorably on Constantine and the empire), Eusebius reports that Constantine used the army as a guinea pig in the methods of mass conversion. Having ordained Sun Day as the universal day of rest, he gave orders that Christian soldiers should be permitted to leave their bases on that day to attend church. For the other soldiers who stubbornly clung to their pagan beliefs, he composed a little monotheistic prayer and ordered them to recite it every Sunday:
We acknowledge thee the only God: we acknowledge thee as our King and implore thy help. By thy favor have we gotten the victory: through thee are we mightier than our enemies. We render thanks for thy past benefits, and trust thee for future blessing. Together we pray to thee, and beseech thee long to preserve to us, safe and triumphant, our emperor Constantine and his pious sons.
But pagans did not convert to the new religion fast enough for the Christian emperor. He decided to increase the pressure on them and passed an edict outlawing pagan rituals. He sent government agents out to remove from pagan temples all of their gold and silver (greatly increasing the contents of the state treasury), and transported statues and notable relics to adorn his new Christian capital city, Constantinople.
Quote ID: 1801
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 115/116
Section: 3C
Toward the end of his life, Constantine completely abandoned his original moderate approach and adopted a far more severe attitude toward all types of Christianity not in compliance with Catholic orthodozy. Eusebius proudly relates that after he “reduced the Church of God to a state of uniform harmony” by means of the councils just discussed, Constantine...... We have directed, accordingly, that you be be deprived of all the housed in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies...and that you should enter the Catholic Church and unite with it in holy fellowship...and your houses made over without delay to the Catholic Church.
Quote ID: 1802
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 118
Section: 3C
Constantine didn’t have long to wait. In February 337, while en route to give battle to the Persians, he became ill near the coastal city of Drepanum. As his condition worsened, he realized he was dying and requested baptism and full admission to the Catholic church. Eusebuis of Nicomedia and the other clergy who were traveling with him on the expedition conducted the ritual, and a few weeks later, on May 22, 337, he died at the age of 65.
Quote ID: 1804
Time Periods: ?
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 118/119
Section: 3C
The account given above can only suggest the scope and depth of the transformation, under Constantine, of the Christian faith, which had had its origins in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the heroic example of the apostles. The Church had long been fiercely loyal to its traditions. After the Edict of Milan in 313, and as a result of Constantine’s bountiful gifts and numerous direct interventions and the eager cooperation of the Catholic bishops, virtually all of institutions, regulations, customs, rituals, calendar, places of worship - were replaced by the eloborate customs, values, pregogatives, rituals, calendar, places of worship and governmental machinery of imperial Rome.
Quote ID: 1805
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Bible
David L. Dungan
Book ID: 67 Page: 125
Section: 3A2,3C
At the beginning of the fourth century, the Catholic Church faced a great temptation. The church of Jesus Christ, hailed as the “Prince of Peace,” was offered recourse to the imperial sword - and took it, gladly. No longer would it have to give reasoned, honest replies to difficult questions from critics and fellow theologians; now it could simply compel agreement and punish disagreement. When it began to use the sword against its enemies, the “heresies” (haireseis), the church thus became deeply twisted and lost its way. Power-hungry, greedy politicians began to take over positions of leadership.In this alien atmosphere, how could Jesus of Nazareth or the Apostle Paul or Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets speak? Were not their voices almost snuffed out, encased in heavy leather bindings of the lavishly illustrated codexes, lying on cold stone altars in giant stone buildings? How could those voices speak and he heard?
Quote ID: 1807
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 79/80
Section: 3C
We are conditioned to think of the decline and fall of Rome sentimentally, as tragedy pure and simple. The gradual dissipation of imperial power, leading to vulnerability before the northern hordes, is the condition only of a new darkness.But what if Roman imperial power itself, not in decline but at the peak, was the real darkness?
Quote ID: 1810
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 180
Section: 3A4,3C
...the Age of Constantine. For him, unification was by definition a matter of domination. And that played itself out in the wars he waged against his rivals. But military domination was only part of his agenda. At a deeper level, he wanted a spiritual domination too, and a fuller sense of that background can help us see his conversion to Christianity in 312 in a clearer light.
Quote ID: 1825
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 180/181
Section: 2B2,3C
...it is significant that Constantine’s coins stated his devotion to the Unconquered Sun. Sol Invictus had already come to be understood, in a proclamation by the emperor Aurelian in 274, as “the one universal Godhead,” as the historian J.N.D. Kelly summarized it, “which, recognized under a thousand names, revealed Itself most fully and splendidly in the heavens”{8}
Quote ID: 1826
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 182
Section: 2B2,3C
The inscription on the Arch of Constantine, which was erected within three years of the battle and still stands near the Colosseum, cites victory only “by the inspiration of the divinity.”{16}
Quote ID: 1827
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 183
Section: 2B2,3C
The potent movement toward monotheism among pagans is reflected in the fact that Summus Deus was by then a common Roman form of address to the deity.{19} As seen in Constantine’s originating piety, that supreme deity would have been associated with the sun, {20} and pagans would have recognized, with reason, their own solar cult in such Christian practices as orienting churches to the east, worshiping on “sun day,” and celebrating the birth of the deity at the winter solstice.
Quote ID: 1828
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 183
Section: 2B2,3C
Indeed, to the Teutons and Celts among them -- and an army mustered from Trier would have drawn heavily from such tribes -- the cross of Christ as the standard to march behind would have evoked the ancestral totem of the sacred tree far more powerfully than it would have Saint Paul’s token of deliverance.{21}
Quote ID: 1829
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 184
Section: 3A4,3C
Thus, while he was ordaining tolerance among religions, he was preparing to abolish tolerance within Christianity. In a letter written in 313, the year of the liberal Edict of Milan, he instructed his prefect in Africa to move against the Donatists, schismatic Christians who posited sanctity as a prerequisite for valid administration of the sacraments. “I consider it absolutely contrary to the divine law,” he wrote, “that we should overlook such quarrels and contentions, whereby the Highest Divinity may perhaps be moved to wrath, not only against the human race, but also against me myself, to whose care He has, by His celestial will, committed the government of all earthly things, and that He may be so far moved as to take some untoward step. For I shall really and fully be able to feel secure and always to hope for prosperity and happiness from the ready kindness of the most mighty God, only when I see all venerating the most holy God in the proper cult of the catholic religion with harmonious brotherhood of worship.”{26}
Quote ID: 1830
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 185
Section: 2B2,3C
That Constantine’s full embrace of a Christian identity -- and of martial sponsorship by the Christian deity -- took place gradually, and not all at once as in the legend, is revealed by the fact that Sol, the pagan sun god, continued to be honored on Constantine’s coins until 321.
Quote ID: 1831
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 187
Section: 3A4,3C
His method was to tolerate diversity and share power for only as long as he had to. The unity of the empire -- under himself -- was to him the absolute political virtue. His string of successful conquests had confirmed its divinely ordained righteousness. So in turning to religion, unity of belief and practice, not tolerance of diversity, had to seem paramount.
Quote ID: 1832
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 188
Section: 3C
Thus Constantine’s political problem opened immediately into his religious one. That led to his -- for our purposes -- most fateful action yet. Immediately upon coming to power as the sole ruler of the empire, but only then, Constantine asserted the right to exercise absolute authority over the entire Church.
Quote ID: 1833
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 188
Section: 3C
Constantine saw, in other words, that only a unified, sharply defined, and firmly advanced Christianity would overcome paganism.
Quote ID: 1834
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 189
Section: 3A4,3C
For Constantine, religious differences were impediments to the power that had replaced Maxentius and Licinius. In this way, the choice (“heresy”) to be religiously different became defined as treason, a political crime.
Quote ID: 1836
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 189
Section: 3C
Thus, the now absolute and sole Caesar, demonstrating an authority no one had ever exercised before, summoned the bishops of the Church to a meeting over which he himself would preside: “Wherefore I signify to you, my beloved brethren, that all of you promptly assemble at the said city, that is at Nicaea...”{40} Two hundred and fifty of them came.{41} He would not let them leave until they had begun to do for the Church what he was doing for the empire. This meeting was the Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumenical Council of the Church.
Quote ID: 1837
Time Periods: 4
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Book ID: 68 Page: 194
Section: 3C,2E1
It is not my purpose here to deny or establish the authenticity of Constantine’s account, but only to observe that his choice of that first ever council meeting at Nicaea as the place from which to promulgate his vision of the cross as a foundational myth of the church-state and state-church reveals a kind of imaginative genius.
Quote ID: 1838
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 277
Section: 3C
After he had defeated Maxentius with the aid, as he believed, of the Christian God, Constantine behaved like a Christian. He gave the Church not only toleration and restitution, but rich subsidies and privileges.{3} But he did not publicly declare himself a Christian, or provide any official definition of his religious position.
Quote ID: 7622
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 282
Section: 3C
The surprising thing is that Sol continued to be prominent on Constantine’s coins for six or seven years after his conversion in 312.{2} The god even appeared, occasionally, on coins issued after the war against Licinius,{3} which Constantine had waged as the Christian leader of a kind of holy war.{4}
Quote ID: 7623
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 288
Section: 3C
Since Constantine’s conversion had been a private act, not involving the Roman state, it did not automatically make Christian symbols the appropriate religious emblems for public monuments.. . . .
While the Christian standard, the Labarum, appeared on coins in 327, this was exceptional. Constantine evidently never came to hold the view that the coins, monuments, or ceremonies of the Roman state were appropriate media for displaying his adherence to Christianity.{6}
Quote ID: 7625
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 289
Section: 3C
A similar sighting of heavenly armies is found in Eusebius’ account of Constantine’s war against Licinius in 323-4.{5} But the heavenly armies of 312 are said to have been led, not by an angel or a martyr, but by Constantine’s deified father. This detail is not orthodox Christianity.John’s note: but no reference
Quote ID: 7626
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 292
Section: 3C
Constantine certainly did not realize the full significance of his change of religious allegiance. The fact is, the Church could never be simply the religious department of the respublica, as the old religion had been. The Church had its own officers, the clergy, who were absolutely distinct from the officers of the state.{5}{5} They came to be drawn from the same social class: see A. H. M. Jones (1964), 920-9; but they formed part of a separate and parallel organization. The possibility of state-church conflict was always a possibility; it had been literally unthinkable in the pagan state.
Quote ID: 7627
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 293
Section: 2E2,3A4,3C
In the event, the most revolutionary aspects of Christianity proved to be Christian asceticism{1} and religious intolerance.{2} Each made a large contribution to the transformation of Graeco-Roman civilization into something else.{3}
Quote ID: 7628
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 296
Section: 3A4,3C
The great expansion of Christianity owed little or nothing to force. Imperial patronage and the prestige of the imperial example were sufficient.{5} But there was one field which imperial coercive power was at least intermittently employed by Constantine. This was the suppression of discord within the Christian Church itself.
Quote ID: 7629
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 298/299
Section: 1A,3C,3A1
Constantine, in various ways, some more successful than others, tried to Christianize the Roman empire. At the same time Christianity, as a result of being the religion of the emperor, was being Romanized and the Church became something like an image of the empire. As more members of the ruling classes were converted the social status of bishops and that of secular dignitaries began to converge.{1} The ecclesiastical administration based on city, province,{2} and patriarchate{3} began to mirror the imperial administration based on cities, provinces, and dioceses.
Quote ID: 7630
Time Periods: 14
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 299
Section: 3C
In the East, the situation was rather different. Constantinople, the capital had never had Roman state cults and so Christianity as the religion of the emperor was in a sense the state religion already.{9}
Quote ID: 7631
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 305
Section: 3C
…it was the conversion of Constantine which inaugurated the period of most rapid advance.. . . .
It was only from this time that it began to win significant numbers of converts among the peasantry and the nobility.
Quote ID: 7639
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 305
Section: 3C
…the conversion of Constantine had not been an expression of private religion. It had been the outcome of political concern. Constantine was converted because he required effective supernatural support, first to defeat his rivals, and then to safeguard the empire he had won.{5}
Quote ID: 7640
Time Periods: 4
Councils: First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology, The
Leo Donald Davis
Book ID: 224 Page: 25
Section: 1A,3C
For the conversion of a Roman emperor to Christianity, of Constantine in 312, might not have happened—or, if it had, it would have taken on a totally different meaning—if it had not been preceded for two generations by the conversion of Christianity to the culture and ideals of the Roman world.
Quote ID: 5629
Time Periods: 4
Councils: First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology, The
Leo Donald Davis
Book ID: 224 Page: 29
Section: 3C
When proclaimed emperor in 306 by the legions at York in Britain in succession to his father Constantius Chlorus, he was like his father a solar syncretist, worshipping a solar divinity under the name of Apollo. His religious outlook gradually gave to a philosophic monotheism and reverence for the divine spirit by whom the universe was governed and whose symbol was the sun.
Quote ID: 5631
Time Periods: ?
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 245
Section: 2B2,3C
But to begin with, the first Christian emperor also wagered on the ambiguities of the solar cult. The famous vision of 312 was associated with the daystar, and until 320 Constantinian coins promoted Sol Invictus as ‘companion’ (comes) of the emperor. Moreover, he had benefited at Grand (Vosges) from an earlier Apollonian epiphany. Much has been written about his alleged hesitations; but he insisted on making the worshippers of Sol Invictus - Mithraists or not - understand that there was no other Sun but his God of the Armies. {135}[Footnote 135] T. D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, Ambridge, Mass. And London, 1981, p. 36f, 48. Cf. A. Afoldi, The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome, Oxford, 1969, p. 48, 54ff.
Quote ID: 5173
Time Periods: 4
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 339
Section: 3C
Thus not only did the divine and hypercosmic monarchy legitimize that of the emperor, but the emperor himself could appear as a permanent reincarnation of divine delegation. {11} ‘Whence came the communication of imperial power to a being of flesh and blood?’ asked an adulator of the first Christina emperor, {12} and he went on to speak of the Logos spread through the world, as the Stoics had done when speaking of the fiery breath of Zeus. Effigies of Constantine show him raising his eyes heavenwards, like Mithras looking at the Sun to accomplish his act of universal salvation.
Quote ID: 5182
Time Periods: 4
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 340
Section: 3C
So soldiers could be expected to show the same fidelity to the emperor as to a ‘present and corporeal god’ (Vegetius, Treatise on the Military Art, II, 5). In the time of Justinian, Leontius of Byzantium would make him the eye of the world: {14}Between God and him there is no intermediary.
This was what has justly been called ‘Caesaropapism’. ‘Bishop of the outside world’, as Constantine designated himself, missionary and representative of Christ, the emperor embodied both the second and third persons of the Trinity. This logic of the Christian Empire was or might appear to be incontrovertible.
NOTE: This is the ultimate seductive flattery of an adulterous church to the emperor of the empire. The church is married now. "We have no king but Caesar!"
Quote ID: 5183
Time Periods: 45
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 340
Section: 3A2,3A4,3C
. . . the imperial cult was but one religion among others, and was in no way exclusive. A true state religion made its appearance with Constantine and the Christian Empire. Before, the expression had no meaning, so to speak. Persecutions were not carried out in the name of one religion, but of civic traditions involved in loyalty towards the emperor.
Quote ID: 5185
Time Periods: 4
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol. 1, The
Edward Gibbon
Book ID: 320 Page: 424/425
Section: 3C
According to his religion and situation, each writer chooses either Diocletian, or Constantine, or Valens, or Theodosius, for the object of his invectives; but they unanimously agree in representing the burden of the public impositions, and particularly the land-tax and capitation, as the intolerable and increasing grievance of their own times. From such a concurrence, an impartial historian, who is obliged to extract truth from satire, as well as from panegyric, will be inclined to divide the blame among the princes whom they accuse, and to ascribe their exactions much less to their personal vices than to the uniform system of their administration.
Quote ID: 7732
Time Periods: 4
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol. 2, The
Edward Gibbon
Book ID: 210 Page: 79
Section: 3A1,3C
The church of Rome defended by violence the empire which she had acquired by fraud; a system of peace and benevolence was soon disgraced by the proscriptions, wars, massacres, and the institution of the holy office.
Quote ID: 5201
Time Periods: 4
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol. 2, The
Edward Gibbon
Book ID: 210 Page: 94
Section: 2B2,3C
On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a scepter in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head.{3}
Quote ID: 8555
Time Periods: 4
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol. 2, The
Edward Gibbon
Book ID: 210 Page: 421
Section: 3A2,3C
He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects….
Quote ID: 8559
Time Periods: 4
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol. 3, The
Edward Gibbon
Book ID: 319 Page: 169
Section: 1A,3C
…the ministers of the catholic church imitated the profane model which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.{2}
Quote ID: 7722
Time Periods: 14
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 120
Section: 2B2,3C
Thus in 321 he made Sunday an obligatory holiday, but while the law was cast in a pagan form, referring to the day as venerabilis dies solis, there can be little doubt that its inspiration was Christian. Granted this necessary ambiguity, the emperor’s conduct is quite consistent with a genuine belief in Christianity, progressively deepening as the years passed after his triumph in 312. Christianity was well on the way to becoming the official religion of the Empire.
Quote ID: 5283
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 159
Section: 3C
Constantine’s sons, in particular Constantius, moved slowly into deliberate opposition, and by a law of 356 all temples were to be closed and all sacrifices discontinued.
Quote ID: 5311
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 163
Section: 3C
The peace of the Church transformed the relationship between the government and Christianity. Whereas previously the emperor Constantine had been the enemy of the Church, he now became its patron and protector so that henceforth the history of the Church is not something apart but inextricably bound up with society and with imperial policy.Constantine’s victory was ascribed by the Christians to the divine aid and the emperor was acclaimed as a new David by historian Eusebius. This interpretation of Constantine’s role meant that he was regarded as a God-given ruler and that his authority was not limited the secular sphere. So Constantine concerned himself with the affairs of the Church, acting to preserve its unity whenever he saw it threatened.
Similarly, he intervened in the Arian controversy and himself summoned the Council of Nicaea in an attempt to bring it to an end. The Church was quite content that he should do these things, its unity with the State being close and amicable.
When in 340 the empire was divided between Constans in the West and Constantius in the East, the same relationship continued as under their father. It was, however, a somewhat anomalous situation. Constans was a supporter of the Nicene orthodoxy, as were the majority of western Christians, while Constantius was more favourably disposed towards the Arian cause, as were the majority of eastern Christians.
Quote ID: 5314
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 163
Section: 3C
“Intrude not yourself into ecclesiastical matters, neither give commands concerning them; but learn from us. God has put into your hands the kingdom; to us he has entrusted the affairs of his Church; and, as he who would steal the empire from you would resist the ordinance of God, so likewise fear on your part lest by taking upon yourself the government of the Church, you become guilty of a great offence. It is written, ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.’ Neither, therefore, is it permitted unto us to exercise an earthly rule, nor have you, Sire, any authority to burn incense.” Martin of ??
Quote ID: 5316
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 164
Section: 3A2A,3C
There, Gratian having been murdered in 383, Ithacius appealed to Maximus and a synod was held at Bordeaux in the following year. Priscillian refused to acknowledge its authority and appealed to the emperor. In 383 he was brought to trial at Trier, found guilty of magic and executed, it being apparent that, although the charge was a civil one, he had been condemned for heresy.
Quote ID: 5317
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 164
Section: 3A2,3C
In these events, the precedent was set for the later handing over of heretics to be executed by the secular power, and the opposing view of Martin, that Church and State should occupy themselves with their own affairs, is clearly stated. But Martin’s dualism, while commendable in its simplicity and certainly applicable where a pagan State and the Christian Church are in opposition, is scarcely adequate where there is a Christian ruler. In such circumstances the distinction between the separate spheres becomes blurred and this was especially so in the fourth century.
Quote ID: 5318
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 170
Section: 2C,3C
Indeed he was prepared to style himself as bishop of those outside the Church. (Constantine)
Quote ID: 5320
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 199
Section: 2E1,2E3,3C
In the year 326 or 327 Constantine wrote to Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, concerning his projected church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the following terms:“I desire, therefore, especially that you should be persuaded of that which I suppose is evident to all beside, namely, that I have no greater care than how I may best adorn with a splendid structure that sacred spot...a spot which has been accounted holy from the beginning in God’s judgement, but which now appears holier still, since it has brought to light a clear assurance of our Saviour’s passion.”
Quote ID: 5328
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 199
Section: 3C,2E3
This is only one of the many churches, in Palestine and elsewhere, for which the emperor was responsible, and the erection of these large and imposing buildings necessarily had an effect upon Christian worship. Whereas hitherto the gatherings of the faithful had preserved their domestic character, which went back ultimately to the Last Supper, henceforth the worship was public worship and that which had been suitable for a dining-room at Dura Europos or Cirta required adaptation if it were to be fitting for a great hall. Moreover the semi-converts who now thronged the churches were in need of instruction and so worship became more elaborate, not only to express the community’s devotion but to impress the large congregations. A comparison therefore of the forms of worship in the fourth century with those existing previously reveals a development which, while preserving the basic patterns, seeks to make them more imposing and to bring out their meaning, with the concomitant risk of obscuring the primitive emphases.
Quote ID: 5329
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 215
Section: 3A1B,2C,3C
Gratian, however, under the influence of Ambrose did not assume the title of pontifex maximus, and in 382 withdrew the funds that had supported the public cult and removed the altar of Victory from the Curia. The pagan caucus in the senate led by Symmachus, carried on a struggle throughout the next decade to have the altar restored, but the offensive against paganism was renewed by Theodosius, who issued a series of laws prohibiting pagan worship throughout the empire.
Quote ID: 5341
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Doctrines
J. N. D. Kelly
Book ID: 428 Page: 87/88
Section: 1A,3C
No steps had been taken so far, however, to work all these complex elements into a coherent whole. The Church had to wait for more than three hundred years for a final synthesis, for not until the council of Constantinople (381) was the formula of one God existing in three co-equal Persons formally ratified. Tentative theories, however, some more and some less satisfactory, were propounded in the preceding centuries.
Quote ID: 8701
Time Periods: 234
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 12
Section: 3B,3C
In general it could be said that the whole thrust of the changes introduced around the turn of the century by Diocletian and by Constantine was aimed at the production of a more regimented and rigid society. Laws that required sons to follow in the professions of their fathers, laws that fixed prices, laws that established exact hierarchies in the civil and military administration, and laws that forbade an increasing range of opinions and practices all cohere in terms of the kind of social ideals that underlie them. {31}….
In this sense the culmination of occasional persecution of the Christians in the course of the third century in the so-called Great Persecution initiated by Diocletian in 303 is hardly surprising.
Quote ID: 2135
Time Periods: 34
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 18
Section: 3C
...with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity. For an event of such importance, at least in the long term, the evidence relating to it is extraordinarily sparse and contradictory. It comes principally in the form of the accounts of the emperor’s vision and subsequent conversion on the eve of the battle given in the De Mortibus Persecutorum (Deaths of the Persecutors) of Lactantius (c.317) and in the Greek Life of Constantine and Ecclesiastical History of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. {8}Pastor John’s note: Xty existed?
Quote ID: 2140
Time Periods: 4
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 18
Section: 3C
All in all Constantine was a very different sort of Christian in the 330s from what he had been in 312. {10}
Quote ID: 2141
Time Periods: 4
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 19
Section: 2B2,3C
Constantine preserved on the coins issued by his government for several years after his conversion the reverse legend of Soli Invicto Comiti – ‘To the Unconquered Sun, Companion (of the Emperor)’. The last of these was struck in 323. {12}
Quote ID: 2142
Time Periods: 4
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 19
Section: 3C
in the matter of religion there was little initially very startling about the prospect of an emperor who believed himself to be specially favoured by and to have a personal relationship to a or the divinity. Heliogabalus and Aurelian had done the same, and the notion of the emperor’s divine comes or companion had become a standard one in the imperial ideology of the Tetrarchy. {13}
Quote ID: 2143
Time Periods: 4
Early Medieval Europe 300-1000
Roger Collins
Book ID: 78 Page: 24
Section: 3A4,3C
It has not been possible for subsequent generations to idealise the first Christian emperor. His treatment of defeated enemies, such as the family of Licinius, was perhaps not untypical of his age, but he was as lethal to his own family as to his foes.
Quote ID: 2145
Time Periods: 4
Ecclesiastical History, Sozomen
Sozomen
Book ID: 86 Page: 18
Section: 3C
This warlike trophy was valued beyond all others; for it was always wont to be carried before the emperor, and was worshiped by the soldiery. I think that Constantine changed the most honorable symbol of the Roman power into the sign of Christ, chiefly that by the habit of having it always in view, and of worshiping it, the soldiers might be induced to abandon their ancient forms of superstition, and to recognize the true God, whom the emperor worshiped, as their leader and their help in battle;
Quote ID: 2313
Time Periods: 4
Ecclesiastical History, Sozomen
Sozomen
Book ID: 86 Page: 51
Section: 3C
He named it New Rome and Constantinople, and constituted it the imperial capital for all the inhabitants of the North, the South, the East, and the shores of the Mediterranean.
Quote ID: 2324
Time Periods: 4
Ecclesiastical History, The, Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus
Book ID: 217 Page: 8
Section: 3C
Chapter II. By what Means the Emperor Constantine became a Christian.In fact, about that part of the day when the sun after posing the meridian begins to decline towards the west, he saw a pillar of light in the heavens, in the form of a cross, on which were inscribed these words, By THIS CONQUER. The appearance of this sign struck the emperor with amazement and scarcely believing his own eyes, he asked those around him if they beheld the same spectacle; and as they unanimously declared that they did, the emperor’s mind was strengthened by this divine and marvelous apparition. On the following night in his slumbers he saw Christ who directed him to prepare a standard according to the pattern of that which had been seen; and to use it against his enemies as an assured trophy of victory. In obedience to this divine oracle, he caused a standard in the form of a cross to be prepared, which is preserved in the palace even to the present time: and proceeding in his measures with greater earnestness, he attacked the enemy and vanquished him before the gates of Rome, near the Mulvian bridge, Maxentius himself being drowned in the river.
Quote ID: 5383
Time Periods: 4
Ecclesiastical History, The, Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus
Book ID: 217 Page: 41
Section: 3C
Chapter XVIII. The Emperor Constantine abolishes Paganism and erects many Churches in Different Places.So great indeed was the emperor’s devotion to Christianity, that when he was about to enter on a war with Persia, he prepared a tabernacle formed of embroidered linen on the model of a church, just as Moses had done in the wilderness; and this so constructed as to be adapted to conveyance from place to place, in order that he might have a house of prayer even in the most desert regions. But the war was not at that time carried on, being prevented through dread of the emperor.
Quote ID: 5390
Time Periods: 4
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 32
Section: 3C
As early as in the time of Constantine we hear complaints about people who conformed to the emperor’s religion from no profounder motives than opportunism.
Quote ID: 5413
Time Periods: 4
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 108/109
Section: 3C
Could religious cult, perhaps, be dissociated from purely secular celebration, in the way Constantine had in mind when he allowed the inhabitants of Hispellum to honour him with games and a temple, but without the pollution of any contagious superstition?{6} This certainly was the view taken by the Christian emperors who continued to safeguard what they saw as the traditional amusements of their subjects, even while seeking to eliminate the religious context with which they had been traditionally associated. In 399 they rounded off a series of enactments by formally prohibiting the abolition by local authorities of the festivities on the pretext of their association with the ‘profane rites’ which had accompanied them and were now prohibited:Just as we have already abolished profane rites by salutary law, so we do not allow the festal assemblies of citizens and the common pleasure of all to be abolished. Hence we decree that, according to the ancient custom, amusements shall be furnished to the people, but without any sacrifice or any accursed superstition, and they shall be allowed to attend festival banquets, whenever the public desires [vota] so demand.{7}
Quote ID: 5427
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 395
Section: 3C,3C2
Book X chapter II. . . and bishops constantly received even personal letters from the Emperor, and honours and gifts of money. It may not be unfitting at the proper place. . . .
Quote ID: 3119
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 395
Section: 3C,3C2
Book X chapter IIIAfter this there was brought about that spectacle for which we all prayed and longed: festivals of dedication in the cities and consecrations of the newly-built houses of prayer, assemblages of bishops, comings together of those from far off foreign lands, kindly acts on the part of laity towards laity, union between the members of Christ’s body as they met together in complete harmony.
Quote ID: 3120
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 397
Section: 3C,3C2
Book X chapter IIIYea verily, our leaders conducted perfect ceremonies, and the consecrated priests performed the sacred rites and stately ordinances of the Church, here with psalmody and recitation of such other words as have been given us from God, there with the ministering of divine and mystic services; and the ineffable symbols of the Saviour’s Passion were present.
Quote ID: 3121
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 447
Section: 2B2,3C
Book X chapter V“When I Constantine Augustus and I Licinius Augustus had come under happy auspices to Milan, and discussed all matters that concerned the public advantage and good, among the other things that seemed to be of benefit to the many, {3} – or rather, first and foremost – we resolved to make such decrees as should secure respect and reverence for the Deity; namely, to grant both to the Christians and to all the free choice of following whatever form of worship they pleased, to the intent that all the divine and heavenly powers that be might be favourable to us and all those living under our authority. Therefore with sound and most upright reasoning we resolved on this {4} counsel: that authority be refused to no one whomsoever to follow and choose the observance or form of worship that Christians use, and that authority be granted to each one to give his mind to that form of worship which he deems suitable to himself, to the intent that the Divinity {5} . . . may in all things afford us his wonted care and generosity.
Quote ID: 3134
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 449
Section: 2B2,3C
Book X chapter VThis has been done by us, to the intent that we should not seem to have detracted in any way from any rite {2} or form of worship.
Quote ID: 3135
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 463
Section: 3C
Book X chapter VIICopy of an Imperial Letter, in which he gives orders that the presidents of the churches be released from all public offices.
Quote ID: 3140
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, LCL 265: Eusebius II, Books 6-10
J.E.L. Oulton
Book ID: 142 Page: 465
Section: 3C
Book X chapter VII“...it has seemed good that those men who, with due holiness and constant observance of this law, bestow their services on the performance of divine worship, should receive the rewards of their own labours, most honoured Anulinus. Wherefore it is my wish that those persons who, within the province committed to thee, in the Catholic Church over which Caecilian presides, bestow their service on this holy worship - those whom they are accustomed to call clerics - should once for all be kept absolutely free from all the public offices, that they be not drawn away by any error or sacrilegious fault from the worship which they owe to the Divinity, but rather without any hindrance serve the utmost their own law. For when they render supreme service to the Deity, it seems that they confer incalculable benefit on the affairs of the State. Fare thee well, Anulinus, our most honoured and esteemed Sir.”
Quote ID: 2312
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 1
Section: 3C
No sooner had Constantine I made his decision in favour of the Church than he began to regulate it. Many of his laws worked to the advantage of the Church, although they also implied a hitherto unknown state control and interest in internal Church matters. Eusebius recorded many of these laws in his Ecclesiastical History.
Quote ID: 8208
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 2
Section: 3C
Law: Ordering a Synod in Rome pp. 381For it does not escape your diligence that I have such reverence for the legitimate Catholic Church that I do not wish to leave schism or division in any place.
Quote ID: 8210
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 2
Section: 3C
Law: A Synod to be Held Against Dissension - Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of Syracuse.When some began wickedly and perversely to disagree among themselves in regard to the holy worship and celestial power and Catholic doctrine, wishing to put an end to such disputes among them, I formerly gave command that certain bishops should be sent from Gaul, and that the opposing parties who were contending persistently and incessantly with each other, should be summoned from Africa; that in their presence, and in the presence of the bishop of Rome, the matter which appeared to be causing the disturbance might be examined and decided with all care.
Quote ID: 8211
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 3/4
Section: 3C
Law: Granting Money to Churches Eusebius; Book 10, Chapter 6…it has seemed good to me, most esteemed Anulinus, that those men who give their services with due sanctity and with constant observance of this law, to the worship of the divine religion, should receive recompense for their labors. Wherefore it is my will that those within the province entrusted to thee, in the catholic Church, over which Caecilianus presides, who give their services to this holy religion, and who are commonly called clergymen, be entirely exempted from all public duties, that they may not by any error or sacrilegious negligence be drawn away from the service due to the Deity, but may devote themselves without any hindrance to their own law.
Quote ID: 8212
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 87
Section: 3C,4A
But although it is clear that we are new and that this new name of Christians has really but recently been known among all nations, nevertheless our life and our conduct, with our doctrines of religion, have not been lately invented by us, but from the first creation of man so to speak, have been established by the natural understanding of divinely favored men of old.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, I.iv.
Quote ID: 9520
Time Periods: 24
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 335
Section: 3C
Constantius Chlorus died at York, in Britain, July 25, 306. According to the system of Diocletian, the Caesar Severus should regularly have succeeded to his place, and a new Caesar should have been appointed to succeed Severus. But Constantine, the oldest son of Constantius, who was with his father at the time of his death, was at once proclaimed his successor, and hailed as Augustus by the army. This was by no means to Galerius’ taste, for he had far other plans in mind; but he was not in a position to dispute Constantine’s claims, and so made the best of the situation by recognizing Constantine not as Augustus, but as second Caesar, while he raised Severus to the rank of Augustus, and made his own Caesar Maximin first Caesar. Constantine was thus theoretically subject to Severus, but the subjection was only a fiction, for he was practically independent in his own district from that time on.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 335. Eusebius, Church History, VIII.xiii.12, footnote 17.
Quote ID: 9543
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 364
Section: 3C,3C2
“Let us sing unto the Lord, for he hath gloriously glorified himself; horse and rider hath he thrown into the sea; a helper and a protector hath he become for my salvation;” and “Who is like unto thee, O Lord; among the gods, who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, marvelous in glory, doing wonders.” These and the like praises Constantine, by his very deeds, sang to God, the universal Ruler, and Author of his victory, as he entered Rome in triumph. Immediately all the members of the senate and the other most celebrated men, with the whole Roman people, together with children and women, received him as their deliverer, their saviour, and their benefactor, with shining eyes and with their whole souls, with shouts of gladness and unbounded joy. But he, as one possessed of inborn piety toward God, did not exult in the shouts, nor was he elated by the praises; but perceiving that his aid was from God, he immediately commanded that a trophy of the Savior’s passion be put in the hand of his own statue. And when he had placed it, with the saving sign of the cross in its right hand, in the most public place in Rome, he commanded that the following inscription should be engraved upon it in the Roman Tongue: “By this salutary sign, the true proof of bravery, I have saved and freed your city from the yoke of the tyrant; and moreover, having set at liberty both the senate and the people of Rome, I have restored them to their ancient distinction and splendor.”
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, IX.ix.11.
Quote ID: 9545
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 382
Section: 3C
1. Constantine Augustus to Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage. Since it is our pleasure that something should be granted in all the provinces of Africa and Numidia and Mauritania to certain ministers of the legitimate and most holy catholic religion to defray their expenses, I have written to Ursus, the illustrious finance minister of Africa and have directed him to make provision to pay to thy firmness three thousand folles.
2. Do thou therefore, when thou hast received the above sum of money, command that it be distributed among all those mentioned above, according to the brief sent to thee by Gosius.
3. But if thou shouldst find that anything is wanting for the fulfillment of this purpose of mine in regard to all of them, thou shalt demand without hesitation from Heracleides, our treasurer, whatever thou findest to be necessary. For I commanded him when he was present that if thy firmness should ask him for any money, he should see to it that it be paid without delay.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, X.vi.1–3.
Quote ID: 9548
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 383
Section: 3C,4B
1. —it has seemed good to me, most esteemed Anulinus, that those men who give their services with due sanctity and with constant observance of this law, to the worship of the divine religion, should receive recompense for their labors.
2. Wherefore it is my will that those within the province entrusted to thee, in the catholic Church, over which Caecilianus presides, who give their services to this holy religion, and who are commonly called clergymen, be entirely exempted from all public duties, that they may not by any error or sacrilegious negligence be drawn away from the service due to the Deity, but may devote themselves without any hindrance to their own law.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, X.vii.1–2.
Quote ID: 9549
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 383
Section: 3C,4B
1 Municipal offices and magistracies were a great burden under the later Roman empire. They entailed heavy expenses for those who filled them, and consequently, unless a man’s wealth was large, and desire for distinction very great, he was glad to be exempted, if possible, from the necessity of supporting such expensive honors, which he was not at liberty to refuse. The same was true of almost all the offices, municipal and provincial offices, high and low. Discharging the duties of an office was in fact practically paying a heavy tax to government.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 383. Eusebius, Church History, X.vii, footnote 1.
Quote ID: 9550
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 386
Section: 3C,3C2
Wherefore, the protector of the virtuous, mingling hatred for evil with love for good, went forth with his son Crispus, a most beneficent prince, and extended a saving right hand to all that were perishing. Both of them, father and son, under the protection, as it were, of God, the universal King, with the Son of God, the Saviour of all, as their leader and ally, drew up their forces on all sides against the enemies of the Deity and won an easy victory, God having prospered them in the battle in all respects according to their wish.
……..
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, X.ix.4.
Quote ID: 9551
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 386
Section: 3C,3C2
But Constantine, the mightiest victor, adorned with every virtue of piety, together with his son Crispus, a most God-beloved prince, and in all respects like his father, recovered the East which belonged to them;2987 and they formed one united Roman empire as of old, bringing under their peaceful sway the whole world from the rising of the sun to the opposite quarter, both north and south, even to the extremities of the declining day.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, X.ix.6.
Quote ID: 9552
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 441
Section: 3C
1. Constantine and his Mother Helena.
The story is written with tolerable art, and runs, abbreviated, something as follows:
Helena, daughter of a noble family of Treves, came on a pious journey to Rome. The Emperor Constantius, crossing a bridge of the Tiber, saw Helena among other pilgrims. Struck with her beauty, he arranged that she should be detained by force at the inn where she stayed, when her fellow-pilgrims returned to Gaul. The emperor then constrained her by force, but, seeing the great grief which his act had caused, gave her a certain ornament of precious stones and his ring, as a sort of pledge, and went away. She did not venture to return to her country, but remained at Rome with the son who was born to her, representing that her Gallic husband was dead. This son, Constantine, grew up pleasing, handsome, and versatile. Certain merchants, seeing his excellent quality, formed a scheme of making money by palming him off on the emperor of the Greeks as a son-in-law, representing him to be a son of the Roman emperor.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 441. The Life of Constantine, Prolegomena, IV.1.
Quote ID: 9553
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 442
Section: 3C
3. Constantine’s Leprosy; Healing and Baptism by Silvester.
Being led away a second time into idolatry through his wife Fausta, he was divinely afflicted with leprosy. The priests prescribed a bath in the blood of infants, and it was ordered; but when he heard the lamentations of the mothers, he said it was better to suffer than that so many infants should perish. Therefore the apostles, Peter and Paul as some say, appeared to him and told him Silvester would cure him, as he did. There are many varieties of the story and various details as to baptism, but in general the whole series of stories regarding his baptism at Rome centers in this story, and gratitude for this cure is the supposed occasion of the famous donation of Constantine.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 442. The Life of Constantine, Prolegomena, IV.3.
Quote ID: 9554
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 442
Section: 3C
4. Donation of Constantine.
This most remarkable of forgeries for its practical effect on world-history has been the subject of endless discussion. It is, in brief, a supposed grant to the Pope of Rome, Silvester, of certain sweeping privileges in recognition of the miracle he has wrought. The edict gives a long confession of faith followed by an account of the miracle and mention of the churches he has built. Then follow the grants to Silvester, sovereign Pontiff and Pope of Rome, and all his successors until the end of the world, --the Lateran palace, the diadem, phryginus, the purple mantle and scarlet robe, imperial scepters, insignia, banners and the whole world to govern. It is impossible here even to represent in outline the history of this extraordinary fiction. Composed not earlier than the latter part of the eighth century (Martens et alt. 9 cent; Grauert, 840-850; Houck, Bonneau, 752-757; Langen, 778,&c; Friedrich acc. To Seeberg, divides into an earlier [653] and a later [753] portion), it early came to be general, though not unquestioned, authority. In 1229-1230 a couple of unfortunates who ventured to doubt its authenticity were burned alive a Strasburg (Documents communicated by Ristelhuber to Bonneau p. 57-58). Not many years after, Dante seems (Inf. 19. 115) to have taken its authenticity for granted
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 442. The Life of Constantine, Prolegomena, IV.4.
Quote ID: 9555
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 443
Section: 3C
5. Dream concerning the Founding of Constantinople.
“As Constantine was sleeping in this city [Byzantium], he imagined that there stood before him an old woman whose forehead was furrowed with age; but that presently, clad in an imperial robe, she became transformed into a beautiful girl, and so fascinated his eyes but the elegance of her youthful charms that he could not refrain from kissing her; that Helena, his mother, being present, then said, ‘She shall be yours forever; nor shall she die till the end of time.’ The solution of this dream, when he awoke, the emperor extorted from heaven by fasting and almsgiving. And behold, within eight days, being cast again into a deep sleep, he thought he saw Pope Silvester, who died some little time before, regarding his convert with complacency, and saying, ‘You have acted with your customary prudence in waiting for a solution from God of that enigma which was beyond the comprehension of man. The old woman you saw is this city, worn down by age, whose time-struck walls, menacing approaching ruin, require a restorer. But you, renewing its walls, and its affluence, shall signalize it also with your name; and here shall the imperial progeny reign forever’”.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 443. The Life of Constantine, Prolegomena, IV.5.
Quote ID: 9556
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 444
Section: 2E1,3C
7. The Finding of the Cross.
It is said in a certain “tolerably authentic chronicle,” according to Voragine, that Constantine sent his mother Helena to Jerusalem to try to find the cross on which our Lord was crucified. When she arrived, she bade all the Jewish Rabbis of the whole land gather to meet her. Great was their fear. They suspected that she sought the wood of the cross, a secret which they had promised not to reveal even under torture, because it would mean the end of Jewish supremacy. When they met her, sure enough, she asked for the place of the crucifixion. When they would not tell, she ordered them all to be burned. Frightened, they delivered up Judas, their leader and instigator, saying that he could tell. She gave him his choice of telling or dying by starvation. At first he was obstinate, but six days of total abstinence from food brought him to terms, and on the seventh he promised. He was conducted to the place indicated, and in response to prayer, there was a sort of earthquake, and a perfume filled the air which converted Judas. There was a temple of Venus on the spot. This the queen had destroyed. Then Judas set to digging vigorously, and at the depth of twenty feet, found three crosses, which he brought to Helena. The true cross was tested by its causing a man to rise from the dead, or according to others, by healing a woman, or according to others, by finding the inscription of Pilate. After an exceedingly vigorous conversation between the devil and Judas, the latter was baptized and became Bishop Cyriacus. Then Helena set him hunting for the nails of the cross. He found them shining like gold and brought them to the queen, who departed, taking them and a portion of the wood of the cross. She brought the nails to Constantine, who put them on his bridle and helmet.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 444. The Life of Constantine, Prolegomena, IV.7.
Quote ID: 9557
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 487
Section: 3C,3C2
The father of Constantine, then, is said to have possessed such a character as we have briefly described. And what kind of death was vouchsafed to him in consequence of such devotion to God, and how far he whom he honored made his lot to differ from that of his colleagues in the empire, may be known to anyone who will give his attention to the circumstances of the case. For after he had for a long time given many proofs of royal virtue, in acknowledging the Supreme God alone, and condemning the polytheism of the ungodly, and had fortified his household by the prayers of holy men, he passed the remainder of his life in remarkable repose and tranquility, in the enjoyment of what is counted blessedness, --neither molesting others nor being molested ourselves.
Accordingly, during the whole course of is quiet and peaceful reign, he dedicated his entire household, his children, his wife, and domestic attendants, to the One Supreme God: so that the company assembled within the walls of his palace differed in no respect from a church of God;
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, I.xvii.
Quote ID: 9558
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 494
Section: 3C
The Honors conferred upon Bishops, and the Building of Churches.
The emperor also personally inviting the society of God’s ministers, distinguished them with the highest possible respect and honor, showing them favor in deed and word as persons consecrated to the service of his God. Accordingly, they were admitted to his table, though mean in their attire and outward appearance; yet not so in his estimation, since he thought he saw not the man as seen by the vulgar eye, but the God in him. He made them also his companions in travel, believing that He whose servants they were would thus help him. Besides this, he gave from his own private resources costly benefactions to the churches of God, both enlarging and heightening the sacred edifices, and embellishing the august sanctuaries of the church with abundant offerings.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, I.xlii.
Quote ID: 9561
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 494
Section: 3C
How he was present at the Synods of Bishops.
Such, then, was his general character towards all. But he exercised a peculiar care over the church of God: and whereas, in the several provinces there were some who differed from each other in judgment, he, like some general bishop constituted by God, convened synods of his ministers.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, I.xliv.
Quote ID: 9562
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 509
Section: 3C
The Church is declared Heir of those who leave no Kindred; and the Free Gifts of such persons Confirmed.
“But should there be no surviving relation to succeed in due course to the property of those above-mentioned, I mean the martyrs, or confessors, or those who for some such cause have been banished from their native land; in such cases we ordain that the church locally nearest in each instance shall succeed to the inheritance. And surely it will be no wrong to the departed that that church should be their heir, for whose sake they have endured every extremity of suffering.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.xxxvi.
Quote ID: 9568
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 511
Section: 3C,3A1
That he promoted Christians to Offices of Government, and forbade Gentiles in Such Stations to offer Sacrifice.
After this the emperor continued to address himself to matters of high importance, and first he sent governors to the several provinces, mostly such as were devoted to the saving faith; and if any appeared inclined to adhere to Gentile worship, he forbade them to offer sacrifice. This law applied also to those who surpassed the provincial governors in rank and highest station, and held the authority of the Praetorian Praefecture. If they were Christians, they were free to act consistently with their profession; if otherwise, the law required them to abstain from idolatrous sacrifices.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.xliv.
Quote ID: 9569
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 511
Section: 3C
Statutes which forbade Sacrifice, and enjoined the Building of Churches.
Soon after this, two laws were promulgated about the same time; one of which was intended to restrain the idolatrous abominations which in time past had been practiced in every city and country; and it provided that no one should erect images, or practice divination and other false and foolish arts, or offer sacrifice in any way. The other statute commanded the heightening of the oratories, and the enlargement in length and breadth of the churches of God; as though it were expected that, now the madness of polytheism was wholly removed, pretty nearly all mankind would henceforth attach themselves to the service of God.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.xlv.
Quote ID: 9570
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 511
Section: 3C
Constantine’s Letter to Eusebius and Other Bishops, respecting the Building of Churches, with Instructions to repair the Old, and erect New Ones on a Larger Scale, with Aid of the Provincial Governors.
VICTOR CONSTANTINUS, MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS, to Eusebius.
“Forasmuch as the unholy and willful rule of tyranny has persecuted the servants of our Saviour until this present time, I believe and have fully satisfied myself, best beloved brother, that the buildings belonging to all the churches have either become ruinous through actual neglect, or have received inadequate attention from the dread of the violent spirit of the times.
“But now, that liberty is restored, and that serpent driven from the administration of public affairs by the providence of the Supreme God, and our instrumentality, we trust that all can see the efficacy of the Divine power, and that they who through fear of persecution or through unbelief have fallen into any errors, will now acknowledge the true God, and adopt in future that course of life which is according to truth and rectitude. With respect, therefore, to the churches over which you yourself preside, as well as the bishops, presbyters, and deacons of other churches with whom you are acquainted, do you admonish all to be zealous in their attention to the buildings of the churches, and either to repair or enlarge those which at present exist, or in cases of necessity, to erect new ones.
“We also empower you, and the others through you, to demand what is needful for the work, both from the provincial governors and from the Praetorian Praefect. For they have received instructions to be most diligent in obedience to your Holiness’s orders. God preserve you, beloved brother.” A copy of this charge was transmitted throughout all the provinces to the bishops of the several churches: the provincial governors received directions accordingly, and the imperial statute was speedily carried into effect.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.xlvi.
Quote ID: 9571
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 515
Section: 3A2A,3A2B,3C
I call God to witness, as is fitting, who is the helper of my endeavors and the preserver of all men, that I had a twofold reason for undertaking this duty which I have now performed. My design then was first to bring the various beliefs formed by all nations about God to a condition of settled uniformity.
Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.lxiv.
Quote ID: 9574
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 524
Section: 3C
“Not one of the bishops was wanting at the imperial banquet, the circumstances of which were splendid beyond description. Detachments of the body-guard and other troops surrounded the entrance of the palace with drawn swords, and through the midst of these the men of God proceeded without fear into the innermost of the imperial apartments, in which some were the emperor’s own companions at table, while others reclined on couches arranged on either side. One might have thought that a picture of Christ’s kingdom was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than reality.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, III.xv.
Quote ID: 9588
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 533
Section: 2E3,3C
The place itself we have directed to be adorned with an unpolluted structure, I mean a church; in order that it may become a fitting place of assembly for holy men.Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, III.liii.
Quote ID: 9595
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 537
Section: 3C
In my own judgment, he whose first object is the maintenance of peace, seems to be superior to Victory herself; and where a right and honorable course lies open to one’s choice, surely no one would hesitate to adopt it.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, III.lx.
Quote ID: 9596
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 539
Section: 3A2,3C
The Heretics are deprived of their Meeting Places.
“Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies; and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. Let those of you, therefore, who are serious of embracing the true and pure religion, take the far better course of entering the catholic Church, and uniting with it in holy fellowship, whereby you will be enabled to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. In any case, the delusions of your perverted understandings must entirely cease to mingle with and mar the felicity of our present times; I mean the impious and wretched double-mindedness of heretics and schismatic’s. For it is an object worthy of that prosperity which we enjoy through the favor of God, to endeavor to bring back those who in time past were living in the hope of future blessing, from all irregularity and error to the right path, from darkness to light, from vanity to truth, from death to salvation. And in order that this remedy may be applied with effectual power, we have commanded, as before said, that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean all the houses of prayer, if such be worth of the name, which belong to heretics, and that these be made over without delay to the catholic Church; that any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility whatever be left for any future gathering; in order that from this day forward none of our unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public.”
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, III.lxv.
Quote ID: 9598
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 555
Section: 2A1,3C
His Sickness at Helenopolis, and Prayers respecting his Baptism.
At first he experienced some slight bodily indisposition, which was soon followed by positive disease. In consequence of this he visited the hot baths of his own city; and thence proceeded to that which bore the name of his mother. Here he passed some time in the church of the martyrs, and offered up supplications and prayers to God. Being at length convinced that his life was drawing to a close, he felt the time was come at which he should seek purification from sins of his past career, firmly believing that whatever errors he had committed as a mortal man, his soul would be purified from them through the efficacy of the mystical words and the salutary waters of baptism.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, IV.lxi.
Quote ID: 9606
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 556
Section: 2A1,3C
Constantine’s Appeal to the Bishops, requesting them to confer upon him the Rite of Baptism.
“The time is arrived which I have long hoped for, with an earnest desire and prayer that I might obtain the salvation of God. The hour is come in which I too may have the blessing of that seal which confers immortality; the hour in which I may receive the seal of salvation. I had thought to do this in the waters of the river Jordan, wherein our Saviour, for our example, is recorded to have been baptized: but God, who knows what is expedient for us, is pleased that I should receive this blessing here. Be it so, then, without delay:
The Oration of the Emperor Constantine, which he addressed “To The Assembly Of The Saints.”
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, IV.lxii.
Quote ID: 9607
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 581
Section: 3C
God had gifted Constantine with “sacred wisdom,” just part of the “the secret mysteries of our emperor’s character.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 581, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, Prologue, 3, 4.
Quote ID: 9608
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 584
Section: 3C
And now that the fourth period has commenced, and the time of his reign is still further prolonged, he desires to extend his imperial authority by calling still more of his kindred to partake his power; and, by the appointment of the Caesars, fulfills the predictions of the holy prophets, according to what they uttered ages before: “And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, III.2.
PJ Note: The nepotism of Constantine praised.
Quote ID: 9609
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 584
Section: 3C
“Monarchy far transcends every other constitution and form of government: for that democratic equality of power, which is its opposite, may rather be described as anarchy and disorder.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, III.6
Quote ID: 9610
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 585
Section: 3C
“And in this hope our divinely-favored emperor partakes even in this present life, gifted as he is by God with native virtues, and having received into his soul the outflowings of his favor. His reason he derives from the great Source of all reason: he is wise, and good, and just, as having fellowship with perfect Wisdom, Goodness, and Righteousness: virtuous, as following the pattern of perfect virtue: valiant, as partaking of heavenly strength.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, V.1.
Quote ID: 9611
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 586
Section: 3C
“Our emperor . . . is dear to the Supreme Sovereign himself . . . whose character is formed after the Divine original of the Supreme Sovereign, and whose mind reflects, as in a mirror, the radiance of his virtues. Hence is our emperor perfect in discretion, in goodness, in justice, in courage, in piety, in devotion to God.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, V.4.
Quote ID: 9612
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 586
Section: 3C
“he clothes his soul with the knowledge of God.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “In Praise of Constantine”, V.6.
Quote ID: 9613
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 587
Section: 3C
“our divinely taught and noble-minded emperor . . . exhibits a pious spirit in each action of his life.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, V.8.
Quote ID: 9614
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 587
Section: 3C
“heavenly choirs, attracted by a natural sympathy, unite their joy with the joy of those on earth” in celebration of Constantine’s thirty-year reign.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, VI.2.
Quote ID: 9615
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 589
Section: 3C
“most pious emperor, to whom alone since the world began has the Almighty Sovereign of the universe granted power to purify the course of human life: to whom also he has revealed his own symbol of salvation, whereby he overcame the power of death, and triumphed over every enemy. And this victorious trophy, the scourge of evil spirits, thou hast arrayed against the errors of idol worship, and hast obtained the victory not only over all thy impious and savage foes, but over equally barbarous adversaries, the evil spirits themselves.”{9}Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, “Oration in Praise of Constantine”, VI.21
Quote ID: 9616
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius: Life of Constantine by Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall
Translated by Averil and Stuart Hall
Book ID: 394 Page: 1
Section: 3C
The Life of Constantine (Vita Constantini, henceforthVC) is the main source not only for the religious policy of Constantine the Great (ruled AD 306-37, sole Emperor 324-37) but also for much else about him.
Quote ID: 8408
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius: Life of Constantine by Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall
Translated by Averil and Stuart Hall
Book ID: 394 Page: 121
Section: 3C
They drove the Godfearing men out of the imperial courts; he constantly placed especial confidence in those very men, knowing them to be well-disposed and faithful towards him above all others.
Quote ID: 8554
Time Periods: 4
Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Book ID: 88 Page: 23
Section: 3A2A,3C
Virulent anti-Semitism entered the picture only when the Christian community was assimilated into the Gentile world and took over a preexisting, non-Christian “pagan hate” for the Jews.
Quote ID: 2332
Time Periods: 234
Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Book ID: 88 Page: 28
Section: 3A2A,3C
This special privileged status of the Jews in Roman society began to be rescinded only after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire and a Christian anti-Semitism began to express itself in anti-Jewish legislation.
Quote ID: 2335
Time Periods: 234
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 68
Section: 3C
In 306, to celebrate his pacification of the Rhine frontier, the emperor Constantine had two captured Germanic Frankish kings, Ascaricus and Merogaisus, fed to wild beasts in the arena at Trier.
Quote ID: 5543
Time Periods: ?
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 119
Section: 3C,4B
With the Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312, the old ideological structures of the Roman world also began to be dismantled, and for Edward Gibbon this was a key moment in the story of Roman collapse.
Quote ID: 5562
Time Periods: 4
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 121
Section: 3C,4B
The Church, as Gibbon claimed, attracted large donations both from the state and from individuals. Constantine himself started the process, the Book of the Popes lovingly recording his gifts of land to the churches of Rome, and, over time, churches throughout the Empire acquired substantial assets.
Quote ID: 5565
Time Periods: 456
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 126
Section: 3C
Under Constantine’s Christian successors, the previously obscure Bishop of Constantinople was elevated into a Patriarch on a par with the Bishop of Rome – because Constantinople was the ‘new Rome’.
Quote ID: 5574
Time Periods: ?
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 127
Section: 3A1,3C
Until the end of the fourth century, seventy years after Constantine first declared his new religious allegiance, the perception that emperors might show more favour to Christians in promotions to office was what spread the new religion among the Roman upper classes. All Christian emperors faced intense lobbying from the bishops, and all made highly Christian noises from time to time.
Quote ID: 5576
Time Periods: 4
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 127/128
Section: 3A1,3C
To my mind, a similar dynamic was at work here as in the earlier process of Romanization. The state was unable simply to force its ideology on local elites, but if it was consistent in making conformity a condition for advancement, then landowners would respond. As the fourth century progressed, ‘Christian and Roman’ – rather than ‘villa and town dwelling’ – were increasingly the prerequisites of success, and the movers and shakers of Roman society, both local and central, gradually adapted themselves to the new reality. As with the expansion of the bureaucracy, the imperial centre had successfully deployed new mechanisms for keeping the energies and attention of the landowning classes focused upon itself.Taxes were paid, elites participated in public life, and the new religion was effectively enough subsumed into the structures of the late Empire. Far from being the harbingers of disaster, both Christianization and bureaucratic expansion show the imperial centre still able to exert a powerful pull on the allegiances and habits of the provinces. That pull had to be persuasive rather than coercive, but so it had always been. Renegotiated, the same kinds of bonds continued to hold centre and locality together.
Quote ID: 8470
Time Periods: 4
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 132
Section: 1A,3C
Its unchallenged ideological monopoly made the Empire enormously successful at extracting conformity from its subjects, but it was hardly a process engaged involuntarily. The spread of Roman culture and the adoption of Roman citizenship in its conquered lands resulted from the fact that the Empire was the only avenue open to individuals of ambition. You had to play by its rules, and acquire its citizenship, if you were to get anywhere.3A
Quote ID: 5580
Time Periods: 1456
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 442
Section: 1A,3A2,3C
Christianity as it evolved within the structures of the Empire was thus very different from what it had been before Constantine’s conversion, and the disappearance of the Roman state profoundly changed it yet again.
Quote ID: 5617
Time Periods: 234
Final Pagan Generation, The
Edward J. Watts
Book ID: 384 Page: 51
Section: 3C
Similarly, around 330, the Athenian pagan Praxagoras composed a thoroughly conventional history of Constantine’s reign that celebrated his virtues and made no mention of either his Christianity or his religious policies.{84}
Quote ID: 8305
Time Periods: ?
Final Pagan Generation, The
Edward J. Watts
Book ID: 384 Page: 87
Section: 3C
Constantius then felt free to break with the precedents set by Constantine. Instead of just starting imperial disapproval of sacrifice, Constantius elected to give his anti-pagan policies some teeth. In 356, he took the important legislative step of prescribing actual penalties for sacrifices. Theodosian Code 16.10.6, a law of February 20, 356, proclaimed, “If any persons should be proven to devote their attention to sacrifices or to the worship of images, We command that they be subjected to capital punishment.”….
Theodosian Code 16.10.4
Quote ID: 8307
Time Periods: ?
Final Pagan Generation, The
Edward J. Watts
Book ID: 384 Page: 101/102
Section: 3C
By the time of his death in 361, Constantius had mandated the death penalty for those who sacrificed, and tried to cut off access to pagan temples.….
Themistius and Libanius embody the spirit of the times. Both men had serious reservations about aspects of Constantius’s reign, but each of them put those reservations aside and delivered glowing panegyrics of the emperor that greatly pleased him. And both were richly rewarded for this.
….
Other members of this generation obviously did less well. Ausonius seems to have had a quiet decade, and Praetextatus likely did too, aside from a governorship of Lusitania.{135}
Quote ID: 8312
Time Periods: ?
Final Pagan Generation, The
Edward J. Watts
Book ID: 384 Page: 148
Section: 3C
The Pannonian emperors thrust the final pagan generation into a period of uncertainty and opportunity, but the Roman world remained largely governed by the same basic social rules that they had learned as children. These men knew how to adapt, survive, and even thrive despite these very real changes.Both Valentinian and Valens had grown up within the system that framed elite life for the final pagan generation. They were, however, to be the last emperors who shared this idea about the need to work within the social consensus that the post-tetrarchic system had created.
Quote ID: 8314
Time Periods: ?
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 21
Section: 3A1,3C
[After it] was brought to power by the imperial structures themselves, the Christian faith was both non-Roman and Roman. It’s precise role in perpetuating the life of the empire is much debated.”
Quote ID: 5633
Time Periods: 456
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 29
Section: 3C
“by the end of the fourth century, Germanic leaders non-Roman “barbarians” held nearly all the highest military positions in the empire.”
Quote ID: 5634
Time Periods: ?
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 31
Section: 3C
Arians were not considered pagan, just heretics. Their martyrs at least the ones that pagans killed) were celebrated throughout the empire.
Quote ID: 5635
Time Periods: ?
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 51
Section: 3C
The episcopacy were “frequently recruited from the aristocracy” and “played a major role in promoting” the integration of roles and customs in the West.
Quote ID: 5642
Time Periods: ?
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 126
Section: 1A,3C
“As the political unity of the empire became a thing of the past, Christian unity took its place. In the same way, it replaced the obnoxious aspects of Greco-Roman scholarship with its own brand of theological learning. Because it had developed in a manner designed to preserve so many features of the imperial heritage, it appeared as its natural extension. There is a sense in which the Christian faith, rather than the barbarian kingdoms, constituted the successor to the Roman Empire in the West.”
Quote ID: 5679
Time Periods: 156
Formation of Christendom, The
Judith Herrin
Book ID: 225 Page: 138
Section: 3C
Those in the “Queen City”, Constantinople, continued into the medieval era to call themselves Romans, “even if they used the Greek term Romaioi.
Quote ID: 5683
Time Periods: 6
From Roman To Merovingian Gaul
Alexander Callander Murray
Book ID: 93 Page: 9
Section: 3C
What is lovelier than this triumphal celebration in which he Constantine employs the slaughter of enemies for the pleasure of us all, and enlarges the procession of the games out of the survivors of the massacre of the barbarians? He threw so great a multitude of captives to the beasts that the ungrateful and faithless men experienced no less suffering from the sport made of them than from death itself.
Quote ID: 2377
Time Periods: ?
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 117
Section: 3C
The climate of opinion still encouraged Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, to throw masses of German prisoners (Bructeri) into the arena and have them torn to pieces by wild animals - the fate that Christians had suffered for centuries. The comment of his cultured panegyrists is that he ‘delighted the people with the wholesale annihilation of their enemies - and what triumph could have been finer?’
Quote ID: 2493
Time Periods: ?
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 122
Section: 3C
Although Constantine the Great made many a German prisoner fight in the arena, he later issued from Berytus (Beirut) an edict ostensibly abolishing gladiators’ games altogether (AD 326).This initiative may have been due to pressure from the Fathers of the Church assembled for the Nicaean Council.
Quote ID: 2495
Time Periods: ?
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 122
Section: 3C
...but the main prohibition was not enforced, at least in the west. Indeed in Italy it was very soon denied by Constantine himself, when he wrote to the town of Hispellum (Spello) agreeing that municipal priests in Umbria should continue to give gladiators’ shows, and that their colleagues in Etruscan towns should combine forces in this respect so as to concentrate their displays at Etruria’s religious centre of Volsinii (Bolsena).
Quote ID: 2496
Time Periods: ?
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 123
Section: 3C
Yet restrictive legislation was again on the way. An edict of Constantius II (357) forbade soldiers and officials in Rome to take part personally in the games, penalizing those who did so,
Quote ID: 2497
Time Periods: ?
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 123
Section: 3C
and eight and again ten years later Valentinian I prohibited the condemnation of Christians to the gladiators’ schools:
Quote ID: 2498
Time Periods: 4
Gladiators
Michael Grant
Book ID: 97 Page: 124
Section: 3A2A,3C,4B
Moreover, some of the most bloodthirsty human holocausts in the arena were perpetrated by Constantine the Great, who made the empire officially Christian; and gladiatorial combats were not abolished until approximately ninety-two years after the Christian revelation that he claimed to have experienced. Yet, for all that, it was appropriate that a monk should have taken the initiative in the final abolition of this scandal. For in the last resort, and in spite of the long time-lag, its termination must be attributed to the spreading of Christian ideas.
Quote ID: 2502
Time Periods: 04
God’s Secretaries: - The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Book ID: 99 Page: 63
Section: 3C
James’s dream of a unified and peaceful realm, guaranteed by his own Solomonic wisdom, was perhaps a fantasy too far.
Quote ID: 2523
Time Periods: ?
God’s Secretaries: - The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Book ID: 99 Page: 85
Section: 3C
Beyond the guilty and the dangerous, however, James held out the prospect of an all-encompassing embrace to anyone and anything that might fall within the dream of national community. Destroy the extremists, whether Catholic plotters or those Puritans who could not conform to the habits of the Church of England, embrace a broad stretch of middle ground. That is the heart of all Jacobean policy - it is what any well-managed, civilised government would do - and of that middle ground the new Bible was to become both the expression and the symbol, the code and guidebook to a rich, majestic and holy kingdom.
Quote ID: 2526
Time Periods: ?
God’s Secretaries: - The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Book ID: 99 Page: 108/109
Section: 3C
James would rather Catholics were banished than executed. ‘I will never allow in my conscience’, he had written to Cecil, ‘that the blood of any man shall be shed for diversity of opinions in religion, but I should be sorry that Catholics should so multiply as they might be able to practise their old principles upon us.’ That was the old political point, as good for Catholics as for extremist Puritans: errors in faith could be tolerated as long as they didn’t threaten the order of the kingdom. The idea of blowing up parliament, needless to say, stepped over the line.
Quote ID: 2531
Time Periods: ?
God’s Secretaries: - The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Book ID: 99 Page: 121
Section: 3C
The king who could get so drunk with his brother-in-law was also the king who was anxious for an inclusive church and an inclusive Bible. It was the dream of civilisation and for that dream to work the moderate Puritans clearly had to be included in its making.
Quote ID: 2532
Time Periods: ?
God’s Secretaries: - The Making of the King James Bible
Adam Nicolson
Book ID: 99 Page: 124
Section: 3C
When they expelled those eighty or so Puritans from the church between 1604 and 1606. For James it was effective and practical politics: a means of achieving unity and uniformity in the church by excluding a small proportion of extremists
Quote ID: 2533
Time Periods: ?
Great Medieval Heretics: Five Centuries of Religious Dissent, The
Michael Frassetto
Book ID: 226 Page: 57
Section: 3C
Like other medieval heretics, also like the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century and the modern critics of the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century, they identified the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine (ruled 305-37) as the pivotal moment in the history of the Church. The moral purity and spiritual purpose of the Church were lost when Pope Sylvester I (314-35) accepted from him the donation of authority over the western Roman Empire: Constantine had been cured of leprosy by Sylvester, then converted to Christianity, and he transformed the Church into a temporal power.
Quote ID: 5741
Time Periods: ?
Hadrian
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 103 Page: 148
Section: 3B,3C
Hadrian forbade circumcision.For the rest, it was a nuisance: only for the Jews a sacrilege. The command can never have been carried out with anything like general obedience. Why did Hadrian try to impose it? There were two reasons. First, with all his liberality of mind, all his longing to see the empire as a company of equal provinces, he envisaged them as a Roman society, a coherent society. There was no room, in his theory, for any “opting-out”, any separatism, and what could be more separatist than this bodily mark? In an age when physical exercise and washing were habitually carried out naked and in company, nothing could be more blatant. Secondly, Hadrian was a Hellenist. To the Greek, man was the measure of all things, mind and body. To dare to modify that body, in any detail at all, even though its results, in the case of the Jews, only served to make a bad state of affairs worse.
Quote ID: 2579
Time Periods: 2
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 197
Section: 3C
Canto XIX lines 108-111Ah Constantine! What measure of wickedness
Stems from that mother- not your conversion, I mean:
Rather the dowry that the first rich Father
Accepted from you!”
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Donation of Constantine
Quote ID: 5879
Time Periods: ?
Influence of Greek Ideas on Christianity, The
Edwin Hatch
Book ID: 321 Page: 346
Section: 3C
When Christianity came to be recognized by the State, Constantine adopted the plan of assembling the bishops on his own authority, and of giving whatever sanction the State could give to their resolutions. He said in effect, “I, as Emperor, cannot determine what Christian doctrine is, but I will take the opinion of the majority, and I will so far recognize that opinion that no one shall have the privileges of Christians, a right to hold property and an exemption from civil burdens, who does not assent to that opinion.” The succeeding Christian Emperors followed in his track. The test of being a Christian was conformity to the resolutions of the Councils. One who accepted them received immunity and privileges. One who did not was liable to confiscation, to banishment, to death. I need hardly draw out for you, who know what human nature is, the importance which those resolutions for the Councils assumed.
Quote ID: 7754
Time Periods: ?
Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians, The
J. B. Bury
Book ID: 310 Page: 46
Section: 3C
The Arianism of Wulfilas is of great importance, for it determined the form in which the Goths ultimately accepted Christianity, a form which was, we may suspect, simpler for their intelligence than the difficult doctrine of Nicaea.Pastor John notes: John’s note: Ha!
Quote ID: 7548
Time Periods: ?
Journal of Early Christian Studies Volume 19 / Number 2 / Summer 2011
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Book ID: 120 Page: 197/198
Section: 3C,2B1
A Christian tradition of applying this name uniquely to God stretched back to the second-century apologists, {2} and the use of this term as a privileged designation for the Father continued among early. . . .
fourth-century Eusebian {3} theologians.{4} The prominence of “Unbegotten” among Eusebians first sparked opposition by Athanasius of Alexandria, who rejected it as useless for designating the Father.{5}
Quote ID: 2772
Time Periods: 24
Journal of Early Christian Studies Volume 19 / Number 3 / Fall 2011
The John Hopkins University Press
Book ID: 122 Page: 347
Section: 3C
As we shall see, rhetorical exhortation was a device used by Constantine as well as Julian to reshape the religious landscape without doing so ostensibly.
Quote ID: 2788
Time Periods: ?
Journal of Early Christian Studies Volume 19 / Number 3 / Fall 2011
The John Hopkins University Press
Book ID: 122 Page: 372
Section: 3C
....the rhetoric provided justification for zealous Christians to claim Constantine’s support for general ban and to attempt to enforce it. At this point, Constantine was obliged to issue a “clarification”: he had “heard” that some believed that “the customs of the temples and the agency of darkness” had been removed in their entirety, but this was not so, because it was impractical.{93}
Quote ID: 2789
Time Periods: ?
Journal of Early Christian Studies Volume 19 / Number 3 / Fall 2011
The John Hopkins University Press
Book ID: 122 Page: 382
Section: 3C
At the beginning of his reign, Constantine had ratified the right of the bishop to act as the supreme arbiter of civil suits brought before him by the faithful....The validation of the episcopalis audientia was a characteristically Constantinian device. It was both grandiose and opportunistic. It enabled the emperor to demonstrate his respect for Christian bishops. At the same time, it recruited an intermediate institution, bureaucracy, in an attempt to “put a cap” on litigation.{23}{23} Brown, Poverty and Leadership, 67.
Quote ID: 2791
Time Periods: ?
Julian’s Against the Galileans
R. Joseph Hoffmann
Book ID: 123 Page: 150
Section: 3C
But as we grant pardon for people afflicted with the disease of insanity, we might agree that the best way to cure the insanity of Christianity is to teach rather than to punish the afflicted.
Quote ID: 2850
Time Periods: 4
Julian’s Against the Galileans
R. Joseph Hoffmann
Book ID: 123 Page: 159
Section: 3C
...since in his day vast numbers of them were cast into exile, tried in the courts, thrown into prison—not to mention the congregations of those called “heretics” who were simply slaughtered—as in Samosata, Cyzicus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Galatia, and the villages where tribes were looted and dispersed. In my reign, none of this has happened: the ones in exile have been called home. Those whose property had been confiscated have by my own law had it restored. But are so inflamed with madness and steeped in stupidity that they fault me for refusing to let them act like tyrants, their conduct toward one another, ….
Quote ID: 2851
Time Periods: 4
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 33
Section: 3C
During his visit to Rome in 357, Constantius II ordered the altar of Victory removed from the senate house, Christian senators had understandably been distressed at having to watch while their pagan peers burned incense before senatorial meetings. Yet during that same visit Constantius walked around Rome admiring the ancient temples, and even filled vacancies in the pontifical colleges, evidently in his capacity as pontifex maximus.{1} The pious emperor may not have performed these duties enthusiastically, but no doubt saw them as a necessary quid pro quo. If he was going to grant a request from Christian senators, it was tactful to grant a parallel request from pagan senators.
Quote ID: 6040
Time Periods: ?
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 139
Section: 3A4A,3C
It is not without justification that membership of the priestly college in the early empire has been treated “as an aspect not of Roman religion but of the history of the senatorial elite.”{46} And in the fourth century, as before, it is clear that the qualifications for a priesthood remained either noble birth or (a distant second) a distinguished career.
Quote ID: 6047
Time Periods: 04
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 141
Section: 3C
While the pontificatus Flavialis was technically a “pagan” cult, it was a cult sanctioned by and actually named after Constantine. Its award was a mark of imperial favor. Though an aristocrat of old Rome, Proculus enjoyed high favor with Constantine.. . . .
The base of his statue in the Forum of Trajan preserves a flattering letter from Constantine himself (p. 9).
Quote ID: 6049
Time Periods: ?
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 175
Section: 1A,3C,4B
For those brought up in the world of civic cults and private initiations, it cannot have been easy to comprehend the exclusive, absolute commitment Christianity demanded. During much of the fourth century, there must have been many who took a genuine interest in Christianity and presented or considered themselves as Christians but, while rejecting sacrifice to what they were willing to accept were false gods, still followed (say) pagan burial customs, continued to watch a favorite festival, or occasionally consulted a haruspex. Rigorist would have dismissed such folk as not better than outright pagans.. . . .
Take Bacurius, an Iberian chieftain who rose to the rank of magister militum in Theodosius’s army at the Frigidus. Rufinus was in no doubt that he was a sincere Christian, but Libanius seems to have thought of him as a pagan (PLREi. 144). Both men actually knew him, and, by itself, the opinion of either would have been considered decisive by any modern scholar. But what do we do with both?
4B
Quote ID: 6066
Time Periods: 4
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 224
Section: 3A2B,3C
Compare the rather similar passage where Ammianus describes the city prefecture of the elder Symmachus, “a man of the most exemplary learning and discretion” and a pillar of the pagan establishment:Through his efforts [Rome]…can boast of a splendid and solid bridge which he restored and dedicated, to the great joy of the citizens, who nevertheless some years later demonstrated their ingratitude in the plainest way. They set fire to his beautiful house across the Tiber, enraged by a story, invented without a shred of evidence by some worthless ruffian, that Symmachus had said he would rather use his wine to quench lime-kilns than sell it at the reduced price that the people were hoping for. (27.3.4)
Quote ID: 6088
Time Periods: ?
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 228
Section: 3C,3D
It has been plausibly conjectured that it was Drepanius himself who compiled the corpus of the Panegyrici Latini, all of which, like Drepanius, have strong Gallic connections.{89} Imperial panegyric is a highly conventional form, to start with apparently unaffected by the conversion of Constantine, who is the subject of no fewer than five of the speeches. They are characterized by “a neutral monotheism which would be acceptable to Christians and pagans alike.”{90}. . . .
Among those who came out of Emona in procession to greet Theodosius, [see symbol] 37 describes flamines venerable in their purple robes and pontifices wearing apices, the conical hat worn by various pagan priests. But no mention of Christian clergy. Section 4.5 has been generally thought to go further than most divine comparisons:
Let the land of Crete, famous as the cradle of the child Jupiter, and Delos, where the divine twins learned to crawl, and Thebes, illustrious as the nursemaid of Hercules, yield to this land. We do not know whether to credit the stories we have heard, but Spain has given us a god we can actually see” (deum…quem videmus).
Would even the most liberal Christian have followed classicizing conventions that far? In this case the answer is yes.
. . . .
Thanks to a brilliant recent discovery by Turcan-Verkerk, we now know that Drepanius (as he should be called) was not only a Christian, but the author of devotional poetry. We can now read one of his poems, an openly Christian piece titled On the Pascal Candle. {93}
Quote ID: 6089
Time Periods: 4
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 256
Section: 2B,3C
More will be said on the subject in later chapters: for the moment it will suffice to refer to Liebeschuetz’s discussion of the “neutral monotheism” of fourth-century panegyric as providing “a wide area of common ground between Christians and pagans.” {106} We should not be misled by the polemical writings of an aggressive Christian minority. For the majority on both sides who wished to avoid confrontation, the “conspiracy of silence” was actually a welcome solution.2B
Quote ID: 6094
Time Periods: 234
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 265
Section: 2B,3C
So was Macrobius himself a pagan? Surely not – at any rate not a committed pagan. One of the most widely discussed passages in the entire Saturnalia is the long discourse on solar theology put in Praetextatus’s mouth in Bk i (17-23), arguing that almost all the gods of the Graeco-Roman pantheon (and a few others as well) represent one aspect or another of the sun.
Quote ID: 6095
Time Periods: 245
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World
Ed. G.W. Bowerrsock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar
Book ID: 126 Page: 7
Section: 2A1,2E1,3C
The powerful but apocryphal idea of the finding of the True Cross by Constantine’s mother Helena gave rise to a tangle of further stories, among them the entirely legendary tale of the baptism of Constantine by Sylvester, the bishop of Rome.
Quote ID: 2871
Time Periods: 4
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World
Ed. G.W. Bowerrsock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar
Book ID: 126 Page: 40
Section: 2E3,3C
The Christian sacralization of space was not as old as Christianity itself. For the first two or three centuries, Christians met in private houses, which were not sacred buildings.
Quote ID: 2877
Time Periods: 123
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World
Ed. G.W. Bowerrsock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar
Book ID: 126 Page: 170
Section: 2E1,3C
On 11 May 330, Rome ceased to be the most important place in the Roman empire. Five hundred miles east of the Eternal City, on a site occupied by modern Istanbul, a new imperial capital was dedicated and (like Rome before it) named after its founder: Constantinople, the city of Emperor Constantine. The inauguration ceremonies were magnificent. On the first of forty days of celebrations, parades, and largesse, the imperial court assembled at the foot of a tall porphyry column erected in the center of the city’s new forum…
was crowned by a radiate diadem like the rising sun; each of its seven glittering rays contained a sliver from the nails used to crucify Christ. Inside the statue, as further guarantee of the city’s security, was hidden a splinter from the True Cross.
…
This stunning ritual was repeated each year on Constantine’s orders to mark the anniversary of the city’s dedication. For the next two years hundred years, as the golden image rounded the turning post of the Hippodrome and neared the imperial box, Roman emperors and their courtiers prostrated themselves before Constantinople’s glittering founder.
Quote ID: 2885
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 54/55
Section: 3C
Constantine appointed many pagans to high office.
Quote ID: 6110
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 55
Section: 3A1,3A4A,3C
Constantine had a law which exempted Christian clergy from certain public obligations. Later, “Constantine found himself legislating to control the numbers of those who now flocked to be ordained and gain these privileges for themselves.”
Quote ID: 6111
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 55/56
Section: 2B2,3C
“it is very possible that he initially saw the Christian God in the same light as Apollo and Sol Invictus, as a protector who would grant favors in return for his own attachment.“
Quote ID: 6112
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 56
Section: 2B2,3C
“he continued to put Sol on his coins until as late as 320-321”
Quote ID: 6113
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 58/59
Section: 3A1,3C
C’s “main contribution to the development of the church lay in the attitude which he adopted towards it as an institution; unwittingly, he set a momentous precedent for future relations between emperor and church and for the development often misleadingly referred to as ’Caesaropapism’.”
Quote ID: 6118
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 61
Section: 3C
Eusebius’s account of this council is “a revealing account as a record of the surprise and excitement felt by the bishops as most of them experienced for the first time the sight of an emperor deferring to them and placing matters of Christian doctrine at the very top of the imperial agenda.”
Quote ID: 6121
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 62
Section: 3C,4B
Under C, “Roman churches were endowed with their own generous income from specified estates”
Quote ID: 6123
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 63
Section: 2B2,3C
In building Constantinople, Constantine adorned it extravagantly “with such famous statuary as the Olympian Zeus, the serpent column from Delphi and the statue of Athena Promachus”. He added to all this “an oval forum with a statue of himself on top of a porphyry column.”
Quote ID: 8171
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 69
Section: 3A2,3C
The emperor’s chief duty became “piety”, which meant he was duty-bound to impose that piety in his empire. Religious persecution was now justified.
Quote ID: 6127
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 103
Section: 2B2,3C
“In two of the earliest surviving Xn mosaics in Rome, Christ is depicted with his apostles at S. Pudenziana (late fourth century) in the style of Emperor and Senate, while the Virgin inappropriately appears in the church of S. Maria Maggiore (fifth century) in the dress and attributes of a Roman empress.”
Quote ID: 6142
Time Periods: 45
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 124/126
Section: 3C,4B
1) after C’s law permitted the church to inherit wealth (must it not have become an institution with the Empire for this to occur?), some “sees” found themselves owners of substantial estates, and certain “bishops found themselves taking on the same responsibility of managing estates with slaves and tenant farmers (coloni) as other landlords.”
Quote ID: 6150
Time Periods: 45
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 176
Section: 3C,4B
“Acclamation” was an important part of late Roman politics. Public acclamations of local governors could prove to be critical to his continuance in office. “Constantine required in AD 331 that records of acclamations be sent regularly to the emperor, so that they could be taken into account in determining future careers of the officials in question.”….
This practice was “taken over by the church, and acclamations and gangs of supporters” played significant roles in “ecclesiastical disputes and during the preliminaries to church counsels, as at Ephesus 431 and Chalcedon in 461, where the lead was taken by a group of monks.
Quote ID: 6172
Time Periods: 045
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 57e
Section: 2E3,3C
Few pagan temples were closed by C and late in his reign he even allowed a new one to be built in Italy in honor of the imperial family. (Pg. 74 at Hispellum)
Quote ID: 6115
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 58a
Section: 3C
C enforced barbaric punishments such as pouring molten lead down the throat of some offenders.
Quote ID: 6116
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 58b
Section: 2C,3C
Constantine referred to himself as “the bishop of those outside the church” or “the thirteenth apostle”.
Quote ID: 6117
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 61b
Section: 3C
C’s precedent was followed by every emperor who followed him, with the exception of Julian.
Quote ID: 6122
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 62b
Section: 2E1,3C
Later Christian myth has it that C’s mother Helena found the “True Cross” during the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Quote ID: 6124
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 71c
Section: 3A3,3C,4B
By a law, C made the Xn church able to inherit property. Immense wealth began to flow to her. With such wealth, a local bishop might find himself looked upon as an authoritarian figure by the local populace. He begins to play the part of urban patron.
Quote ID: 6128
Time Periods: 4
Later Roman Empire, The
Averil Cameron
Book ID: 243 Page: 193b
Section: 3C,4B
“Constantine unwittingly created a church which for centuries would rival the power of the state. No fundamental economic transformation took place in the later empire; indeed, the church now absorbed much of the surplus revenue, just as external pressures increased the difficulties of maintaining an adequate army to such a level that the western government effectively gave up the struggle.”
Quote ID: 6181
Time Periods: 45
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Bart D. Ehrman
Book ID: 420 Page: 250/251
Section: 3C,3D,4B
As a result of the favors Constantine poured out upon the church, conversion to the Christian faith soon became “popular.” At the beginning of the fourth century, Christians may have comprised something like 5 to 7 percent of the population; but with the conversion of Constantine the church grew in leaps and bounds. By the end of the century it appears to have been the religion of choice of fully half the empire. After Constantine, every emperor except one was Christian.{3} Theodosius I (emperor 379-95 CE) made Christianity (specifically Roman Christianity, with the bishop of Rome having ultimate religious authority) the official religion of the state.
Quote ID: 8608
Time Periods: 4
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Bart D. Ehrman
Book ID: 420 Page: 251
Section: 3C
If any other form of early Christianity had established itself as dominant within the religion, would Constantine have embraced it?*John’s note: Bart does not ask about Arius.*
Quote ID: 8609
Time Periods: 4
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Bart D. Ehrman
Book ID: 420 Page: 251
Section: 3A1,3C
All things considered, it is difficult to imagine a more significant event than the victory of proto-orthodox Christianity.
Quote ID: 8610
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 5
Section: 3C,4B
By placing the senatorial aristocracy at the center of the discussion, this study tries to avoid the missteps that have caused previous scholarly approaches to falter, chief among them the persistent tendency to underestimate the autonomy and resources of the aristocracy in facing imperial and episcopal influence. The dominant model of change is problematic precisely in this regard, for it sees religion spreading from “top to bottom,” as it were, with an aristocracy accepting the religious example set by enthusiastic and powerful Christian emperors out of ambition or greed, or simply indifference to religion.PJ: She does not believe that happened.
Quote ID: 7427
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 5
Section: 3C,4B
This study does not reject the idea that emperors had an impact on the aristocracy. However, because emperors were working against an imbedded and considerably autonomous senatorial culture, the emperor’s influence was more limited and more diffuse than many have argued.
Quote ID: 7428
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 181
Section: 3C,4B
Constantine had the most dramatic impact on late Roman society. As he ushered in legislation to make Christianity a licit religion and took on the role of patron of the church, he showed that Christianity was a viable indeed imperially favored, option. Churches and clergy became the recipients of imperial patronage in the form of land, buildings, and funding. {9}
Quote ID: 7445
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 181
Section: 3A1,3C,3D
Clergy even received certain benefits that made clear their favored status. So, for instance, clergy and other Christians were granted the rather unusual right of freeing their slaves in church according to Roman law (C.Th. 4.7.1 321). This is one indication of this emperor’s willingness to use law to support the institutional prestige of the church.
Quote ID: 7446
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 182
Section: 3C
With some fanfare, Constantius II supported two major missionary campaigns, one beyond the southern frontiers of the empire and one to the Goths on the Danube; although both missions served political and financial as well as religious ends, the implications of imperial involvement in such conversion efforts were not lost on contemporaries.{13}
Quote ID: 7447
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 185
Section: 3C,4B
Nor do Valentinian’s laws show him as actively working to advance Christianity among the aristocracy. As Ammianus remarked in praise, “he remained neutral on religious differences neither troubling anyone on that ground nor coercing him to reverence this or that. He did not bend the necks of his subjects to his own belief by threatening edicts, but left such matters undisturbed as he found them.” {34}
Quote ID: 7450
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 185
Section: 3C,4B
Religious tolerance did not prevent Valentinian I from taking a stand on issues pertaining to the Christian community. He did, for instance, outlaw certain groups as heretical and penalized clerics who defrauded their flocks. {36} But these laws did not advance conversion directly. Rather, this emperor and his brother Valens appear far more engaged in pursuing military goals than advancing Christianity. {37}PJ: Her biases are dulling her judgments.
Quote ID: 7451
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 187
Section: 3C
In the thirteen years of Constantine’s sole rule, 324-337, my study population shows a parity of appointments to lowest offices; of twelve appointees in total, there was an even split between pagans and Christians.
Quote ID: 7452
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 188
Section: 3C,4B
Given the oft-expressed view that Christian emperors of the fourth century favored coreligionists, it is noteworthy that the office-holding patterns among Roman aristocrats in this study population show that Christians were not predominant from Constantine’s time on.
Quote ID: 7453
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 189
Section: 2B2,3C
Active Christianizing emperors sought the support of the aristocracy in their quest for honor. Constantius II, for example, was eager to maintain good relations with the pagan Roman senatorial aristocracy; when he visited Rome in 357, he admired the pagan temples and filled the pagan priesthood. {48}
Quote ID: 7454
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 189/190
Section: 3C
Constantius II had the pagan rhetor Bemarchius give a recitation at the inauguration of a church he had built.{54}PJ: Bemarchius wrote The Works of Emperor Constantine in Ten Books. Not on Amazon.
Quote ID: 7455
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 190
Section: 2B2,3C
To take an aggressive stand against pagan aristocrats could undermine the basis of imperial honor and unravel a network of relationships that worked to their mutual benefit. No wonder then that Constantius II, when in Rome, filled the pagan priesthoods rather than risk losing the support of a group whose approval he sought.
Quote ID: 7456
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 193
Section: 3C
Perhaps most of all, emperors needed aristocrats as military commanders. Indeed, the centrality of the military elite to any emperor’s rule is underlined by the simple fact that the imperial dynasties of the fourth century--those of Constantine, Velentinian I, and Theodosius I-- all came from military backgrounds and acquired power through the support of the military. To survive, the emperor had to maintain the backing of the army and its generals. Even the most zealous of Christian emperors recognized this and appointed powerful pagan military leaders and ensured loyalty by making personal ties of marriage to families from the military aristocracy.
Quote ID: 7457
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 193
Section: 2B2,3C
In theory, emperors had absolute control over appointments to office. If religious conversion was the sole concern, Christian emperors would have appointed only Christians. They did not; even by the end of the fourth century, when there was a larger pool of Christians to choose from, Christianizing emperors like Gratian and Theodosius continued to appoint pagan aristocrats to office (see Tables 6.1, 6.2).
Quote ID: 7458
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 195
Section: 3A1,3C
The emperors also made explicit the privileged position of the church within the state. Most important, in terms of influencing upwardly mobile local elites, were the codes granting exemptions to clergy from serving on local town councils and performing compulsory public service. {71} Pagan priests also enjoyed such exemptions. {72} But Constantine and his successors granted certain privileges to the church and its officials that went beyond those generally allowed to the pagan cults and their priests. So, for instance, bishops were prohibited from being accused in secular courts (C.Th. 16.2.12 355), and bishops were given judicial authority, deemed “sacred” and final (C.Th. 1.27.1 318). {73}
Quote ID: 7460
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 197
Section: 2B2,3C
The emperor was not only the head of the state; he was also the pontifex maximus, chief priest of the state religion until Gratian renounced this role ca. 382.
Quote ID: 7462
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 197
Section: 2B2,3C
by the late fourth century, important imperial cult rituals, such as victory celebrations, no longer focused on sacrifice to the pagan deities. Instead, they proclaimed imperial gratitude for victories owed to the Christian God;
Quote ID: 7463
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 198
Section: 3C,4B
The emperors gave monies and land to the church and its clergy, often for building projects, a conventional arena for elite patronage. Here, too, emperors varied. Constantine was extremely generous in his gifts to the church and its bishops; the Liber Pontificalis records the basilicas he funded over the western empire and the monies and lands that he bequeathed. Other emperors were not known for being as generous as Constantine, but most fourth-century emperors did support building projects or gave land to the church. {84} Such patronage made visible the new prestige of the church and its officials in society.By supporting the church and its clergy in such conventionally aristocratic ways, the emperors established themselves as models of Christian patronage that other aristocrats could follow.
Quote ID: 7464
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 198/199
Section: 3C,4B
By acting according to aristocratic norms--as patron, as leaders and as participant in an increasingly prestigious religious group--the emperors infused Christian practices and understandings into traditional areas of late Roman elite society. The emperors made themselves, in essence, exemplars of how to be aristocratic and Christian at the same time. Thus they became a symbolic focus, showing how it was possible to be Christian even as they remained prestigious members of the aristocracy.
Quote ID: 7465
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 201
Section: 3C,4B
In general, Christian leaders took aristocratic status culture into account in two ways. First, they communicated through the prevailing modes of discourse; they fashioned the rhetoric of Christianity to make it pleasing to educated elite listeners. {3} Second, Christian leaders shaped the message of Christianity in public and private so as to appeal to aristocrats, achieving a fit between Christian and aristocratic social concerns and values.
Quote ID: 7468
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 201
Section: 3C,4B
I am also arguing against those scholars who see in the aristocracy of the later Roman empire a growing need for salvation, a growing anxiety within its core that led this group to seek the assurances of the message of Christianity.
Quote ID: 7469
Time Periods: 45
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 201/202
Section: 3C,4B
The efforts of Christian leaders to adapt aristocratic status culture into a Christian framework were so successful that for the majority of fourth-century aristocrats, Christianity did not entail a radical reorientation---the classic notion of conversion---from their previous way of life. {6}
Quote ID: 7470
Time Periods: 4
Making of a Christian Aristocracy, The
Michele Renee Salzman
Book ID: 297 Page: 202
Section: 3C,4B
Christian leaders, while acknowledging secular honors, nonetheless downplayed such honors as compared to those attained through Christianity.
Quote ID: 7471
Time Periods: 45
Making of Late Antiquity, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 251 Page: 63
Section: 3C
Though they receive great prominence in modern scholarship, the visions that accompanied his conversion in 312 were no more than passing incidents in a lifelong style of relationship with the supernatural: as befitted a “friend of God,” he was recipient of ten thousand such heartening visitations.
Quote ID: 6317
Time Periods: 4
Making of Late Antiquity, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 251 Page: 68/69
Section: 2B2,3C
The outstanding man did not only have a stronger invisible protector. His intimate friendship with that protector verged on the merging of their identities. In 240 the young Mani began on his career as a visionary after such contact with his heavenly Twin: “I made him mine, as my very own.” {50} In 310, Constantine prepared for his conquest with a vision of his Apollo: “You saw him and recognized yourself in him . . . young and gay, a bringer of salvation and of exceeding beauty.” {51}
Quote ID: 6325
Time Periods: 34
Making of Late Antiquity, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 251 Page: 100
Section: 3A4,3C
The Christians looked to the earth alone. They claimed power from heaven; but they had made that heaven remote and they kept its power to themselves, to build up new separate institutions among upstart heroes on earth. Such institutions had been hastily thrown up by men for men.. . . .
The “stars” that held the attention of a fourth-century Christian were the tombs of the martyrs, scattered like the Milky Way throughout the Mediterranean. {76}
Quote ID: 6343
Time Periods: 4
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 257
Section: 2A3,2E4,3C
Even at this stage Churches had their roll of honour of martyrs whose ‘birthdays’ (natalicia) were celebrated each year.{132} The niche in the Red Wall under St. Peter’s with its fragmentary Greek word ... may be the earliest material evidence for the cult. In addition, they inherited from Judaism a sense of social obligation which even if it was confined mainly to benefiting their own members, impressed outsiders with their cohesion and inner strength.
Quote ID: 7674
Time Periods: 0123
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 518
Section: 3B,3C
What Maximian was performing for the benefits of the adherents of the gods, Constantine now did for those of the Christian God. The Senate had rapidly declared him senior Augustus. In the winter of 312, he used his legislative authority to dismantle the remains of the persecution.{281}
Quote ID: 7686
Time Periods: 4
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 520/521
Section: 3C,4B
Persecution had failed as a policy. When one looks for the immediate causes of the Christian triumph one need only consult Lactantius. The pagan world had had enough, enough of bloodshed, enough of the butchers’ shop in service to the gods, enough of the deaths of men known (like Pamphilus) to be upright, learned and brave.{290} As the killing went on, so more turned to Christ. Persecution even quickened the pace of conversions.{291}
Quote ID: 7687
Time Periods: 4
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 521
Section: 2B2,3C
It was no longer a ‘strange, new religion’. In the Vatican cemetery, a mosaic dated to this period shows Christ resplendent with halo, whose rays of light form a cross, driving a little chariot of the sun.{293} So it was in this Christian’s mind. Sol Invictus and Christus Victor could be assimilated, but the victor was Christ and it was thus that Constantine was interpreting the vision of the Milvian Bridge.
Quote ID: 7688
Time Periods: 34
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 543
Section: 3C
At the same time he demanded that the Christian ministers should be united among themselves.
Quote ID: 7689
Time Periods: 4
Medieval Saints: A Reader
Edited by Mary-Ann Stouck
Book ID: 151 Page: 43
Section: 2A3,3C
6. THE TRIALS AND EXECUTION OF CYPRIANCyprian was an important theologian and bishop of Carthage at the time of the persecution under the emperor Decius (250), which he spent in hiding. After the death of Decius in 251 there was a period of peace, only to be followed by renewed persecution under the emperor Valerian, whose edict in 257 forbidding Christians to assemble together for any reason, including burials at cemeteries, was especially damaging to the community of converts. Cyprian was first arrested and sent into exile.
Quote ID: 3250
Time Periods: 3
Mithras: Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, The
Manfred Clauss
Book ID: 389 Page: 13
Section: 3C
Constantine commissioned astrologers to work out their most favourable juncture for the foundation of his new capital, Constantinople.
Quote ID: 8342
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 73/74
Section: 3C
For he put to death his son Crispus, stiled (as I mentioned) Caesar, on suspicion of debauching his mother-in-law Fausta, without any regard to the ties of nature.For causing a bath to be heated to an extraordinary degree, he shut up Fausta in it, and a short time after took her out dead. Of which his conscience accusing him, as also of violating his oath, he went to the priests to be purified from his crimes. But they told him, that there was no kind of lustration that was sufficient to clear him of such enormities. A Spaniard, named Aegyptius, very familiar with the court-ladies, being at Rome, happened to fall into converse with Constantine, and assured him, that the Christian doctrine would teach him how to cleanse himself from all his offences, and that they who received it were immediately absolved from all their sins.
Quote ID: 8231
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 74
Section: 3C
“3”
Quote ID: 8232
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 74
Section: 3C
Being unable to endure the curses of almost the whole city, he sought for another city as large as Rome, where he might build himself a palace.
Quote ID: 8233
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 78
Section: 3C
To speak in plain terms, he was the first cause of the affairs of the empire declining to their present miserable state.
Quote ID: 8234
Time Periods: 456
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 81
Section: 3C
Constantine, having done this, not only continued to waste the revenue of the empire in useless expenses, and in presents to mean and worthless person,*John’s note: True criticism*
Quote ID: 8235
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 96
Section: 3C
3. It is almost needless to say, that all that is here related of Constantine is the slander of Julian the Apostate, and is totally without any foundation in truth. Crispus was justly executed for an atrocious crime, and Fausta perished by an accidental suffocation by the fault of the bath keepers.
Quote ID: 8236
Time Periods: 45
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 172
Section: 2C,3C
Upon the elevation of any one to the imperial dignity, the pontifices brought him the priestly habit, and he was immediately styled, Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest. All former emperors, indeed, appeared gratified with the distinction, and willingly adopted the title. Even Constantine himself,
Quote ID: 8240
Time Periods: 4
Nova Historia [New History]
Zosimus Historicus
Book ID: 376 Page: 172
Section: 2C,3C
PJ Note: IV.36.But when the Pontifices, in the accustomed manner, brought the sacred robe to Gratian, he considering it a garment unlawful for a Christian to use, rejected their offer.
Quote ID: 8241
Time Periods: 4
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 143/144
Section: 3A4A,3C
Lecture VI: The Clergy as a Separate Class.But under the vicious system of the later Empire they were an almost intolerable burden. The magistrates were charged with the collection of the revenue, and, the quota of each municipality being fixed, they had to make up the deficit–in days in which deficits were chronic–out of their private resources{10}. The holding of office consequently involved in some cases an almost ruinous expenditure. It was a heavy and unequal tax upon property. An addition to the number of those who were exempt from it added to its oppressiveness and its inequality. It had also another result, it added to the number of claimants for admission to the privileged class. When the officers of Christian Churches were exempted, many persons whose fortunes were large enough to render them liable to the burden of municipal offices, sought and obtained admission to the ranks of the clergy, with the view of thereby escaping their liability. The exemption had barely been half-a-dozen years in operation before the Emperor found it necessary to guard it with important limitations{11}. These limitations were, for the most part, in the direction of prohibiting those who were liable to municipal burdens from being appointed to ecclesiastical office.
Quote ID: 6429
Time Periods: 4
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 149/151
Section: 3C,3A3,4B
Lecture VI: The Clergy as a Separate Class.Into this primitive state of things the State introduced a change.
I. It allowed the Churches to hold property{25}. And hardly had the holding of property become possible before the Church became a kind of universal legatee. The merit of bequeathing property to the Church was preached with so much success that restraining enactments became necessary. Just as the State did not abolish, though it found it necessary to limit, its concession of exemption to Church officers, so it pursued the policy of limiting rather than of abolishing the right to acquire property{26}. ‘I do not complain of the law,’ says Jerome, writing on this point, ‘but of the causes which have rendered the law necessary{27}.’
2. The enthusiasm, or the policy, of Constantine went considerably beyond this. He ordered that not only the clergy but also the widows and orphans who were on the Church-roll should receive fixed annual allowances{28} : he endowed some Churches with fixed revenues chargeable upon the lands of the municipalities{29} : in some cases, he gave to churches the rich revenues or the splendid buildings of heathen temples{30}.
This is the second element in the change : the clergy became not only independent, but in some cases wealthy. In an age of social decay and struggling poverty they had not only enough but to spare.
. . . .
The effect of the recognition of Christianity by the State was thus not only to create a class civilly distinct from the rest of the community, but also to give that class social independence. In other words, the Christian clergy, in addition to their original prestige as office-bearers, had the privileges of a favoured class, and the power of a moneyed class.
Quote ID: 6431
Time Periods: 45
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 168
Section: 3C,3A1
Lecture VII: Councils and the Unity of the Church.But no sooner had Christianity been recognized by the State than such conferences tended to multiply, to become not occasional but ordinary, and to pass resolutions which were regarded as binding upon the Churches within the district from which representatives had come, and the acceptance of which was regarded as a condition of intercommunion with the Churches of other provinces. There were strong reasons of imperial policy for fostering this tendency. It was clearly advisable that the institutions to which a new status had been given should be homogeneous. It was clearly contrary to public policy that not only status but also funds should be given to a number of communities which had no other principle of cohesion than that of a more or less undefined unity of belief{9}.
[Footnote 9] A law of Constantine in A. D. 326, Cod. Theodos. 16. 5. I, confines the privileges and immunities which had been granted to Christians to ‘catholicae legis observatoribus.’
Quote ID: 6440
Time Periods: 4
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 174/175
Section: 3A1,3C
Lecture VII: Councils and the Unity of the Church.Even before Christianity had been recognized by the State, when Paul of Samosata refused to give up possession of the Church-buildings at Antioch, and claimed still to be the bishop of the Church, there were no means of ejecting him except that of an appeal to the Emperor Aurelian{22}. A number of such Churches might join together and form a rival association. In one important case this was actually done. A number of Churches in Africa held that the associated Churches were too lax in their terms of communion. How far they were right in the particular points which they urged cannot now be told{23}. But the contention was for purity. The seceding Churches were rigorists. Their soundness in the faith was unquestionable{24}. They resolved to meet together as a separate confederation, the basis of which should be a greater purity of life; and but for the interference of the State they might have lasted as a separate confederation to the present day. The interference of the State was not so much a favour shown to the bishops who asked for it as a necessary continuation of the policy which Constantine had begun.
. . . .
it was impossible for the State to assume the office of determining for itself what was and what was not Christian doctrine. It was enough for the State that a great confederation of Christian societies existed.
Quote ID: 6445
Time Periods: 34
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 176
Section: 3A1,3C
Lecture VII: Councils and the Unity of the Church.(3) The State discouraged and ultimately prohibited the formation of new associations outside the general confederation. ‘Let all heresies,’ says a law of Gratian and Valentinian, ‘for ever hold their peace: if any one entertains an opinion which the Church has condemned let him keep it to himself and not communicate it to another {27}.’
PJ: A major development. = no groups of congregations were legitimate outside the Roman Catholic faith.
Quote ID: 6446
Time Periods: 4
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 177/178
Section: 1A,2C,3A1,3C
Lecture VII: Councils and the Unity of the Church.In this way it was that, by the help of the State, the Christian Churches were consolidated into a great confederation. Whatever weakness there was in the bond of a common faith was compensated for by the strength of civil coercion. But that civil coercion was not long needed. For the Church outlived the power which had welded it together. As the forces of the Empire became less and less, the forces of the Church became more and more. The Churches preserved that which had been from the first the secret of Imperial strength. For underneath the Empire which changed and passed, beneath the shifting pageantry of Emperors who moved across the stage and were seen no more, was the abiding empire of law and administration, – which changed only as the deep sea changes beneath the wind-swept waves. That inner empire was continued in the Christian Churches. In the years of transition from the ancient to the modern world, when all civilized society seemed to be disintegrated, the confederation of the Christian Churches, by the very fact of its existence upon the old imperial lines, was not only the most powerful, but the only powerful organization in the civilized world.
. . . .
This confederation, and no other, was the ‘city of God;’ this, and no other, was the ‘body of Christ;’ this, and no other, was the ‘Holy Catholic Church.’
Quote ID: 6447
Time Periods: 147
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 184
Section: 3A1,3C
Lecture VIIIn the third period, insistence on Catholic faith had led to the insistence on Catholic order – for without order, dogma had no guarantee of permanence. Consequently the idea of unity of organization was superimposed upon that of unity of belief. It was held not to be enough for a man to be living a good life, and to hold the Catholic faith and to belong to a Christian association: that association must be part of a larger confederation, and the sum of such confederations constituted the Catholic Church{44}.
This last is the form which the conception of unity took in the fourth century, and which to a great extent has been permanent ever since.
Quote ID: 6448
Time Periods: 47
Organization of the Early Christian Churches, The
Edwin Hatch, M. A.
Book ID: 255 Page: 185
Section: 3A1,2C,3C
Lecture VII‘Your Catholic Church,’ they said to their opponents, ‘is a geographical expression: it means the union of so many societies in so many provinces or in so many nations: our Catholic Church is the union of all those who are Christians in deed as well as in word: it depends not upon intercommunion, but upon the observance of all the divine commands and Sacraments: it is perfect, and it is immaculate’ {47}.
The Donatists were crushed: but they were crushed by the State. They had resisted State interference: Quid Imperatori cum ecclesia? They asked {48}. But the Catholic party had already begun its invocation of the secular power: and the secular power made ecclesiastical puritanism a capital crime{49}.
Quote ID: 6449
Time Periods: 456
Origins of Modern Europe, The
R. Allen Brown
Book ID: 256 Page: 22
Section: 1A,3C
But meanwhile in getting so far we have gone too fast, and there are two important factors yet to be inserted among the causes of the slow decline of Rome. The first is the Emperor Constantine, and the second, closely related, is Christianity.
Quote ID: 6465
Time Periods: 14
Orosius: Seven Books of History against the Pagans
A. T. Fear
Book ID: 165 Page: 325/326
Section: 3C
After Christ the Lord had suffered, risen from the dead, and sent forth His disciples to preach, Pilate, the governor of the province of Palestine, made a report to the emperor Tiberius and the Senate concerning Christ’s suffering, resurrection, and the miracles which then followed, both those performed by Himself in public and those performed by His disciples in His name. He also reported that He was believed to be God by the growing faith of a great number of men. Tiberius proposed, and strongly recommended, to the Senate that Christ be considered as God, but the Senate was angry that this matter had not been brought to its notice first, as was the custom, in order that it might be the first to decree that a new cult be adopted. Therefore, it refused to consecrate Christ and passed a decree that Christians be completely extirpated from the City, {39}above all because Tiberius’s prefect, Sejanus strongly opposed adopting the religion. {40} Tiberius then passed a decree threatening death to those who denounced Christians. {41} Because of these events, Tiberius gradually abandoned his praiseworthy moderation in order to take revenge on the Senate for opposing him-- for whatever the king did by his own choice was pleasing to him, and so from the mildest of princes there blazed forth the most savage of wild beasts.Pastor John’s note: what a farce
Quote ID: 3482
Time Periods: 45
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 109
Section: 3C
Constantine used pagan as well as Christian rituals and decorations in dedicating his new capital, Constantinople. {81} And he used pagan magic formulas to protect crops and heal diseases. {82}
Quote ID: 3557
Time Periods: 24
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 116
Section: 2A4,2E1,3C
Under Constantine’s reign, the clergy, who had first worn everyday clothes, began dressing in special garments. What were those special clothes? They were the garments of Roman officials. Further, various gestures of respect toward the clergy were introduced in the church that were comparable to the gestures that were used to honor Roman Officials. {136}
The Roman custom of beginning a service with processional music was adopted as well. For this purpose, choirs were developed and brought into the Christian church. {137} Worship became more professional, dramatic, and ceremonial.
Quote ID: 3568
Time Periods: ?
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 116
Section: 3C
As one Catholic scholar readily admits, with the coming of Constantine “various customs of ancient Roman culture flowed into the Christian liturgy . . . even the ceremonies involved in the ancient worship of the Emperor as a deity found their way into the church’s worship, only in their secularized form.” {141}
Quote ID: 3569
Time Periods: 4
Paganism in the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 171 Page: 132
Section: 3C
For Constantine ushered in a new age, in which for the first time there was such a thing as a state cult.
Quote ID: 3773
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 185
Section: 1A,3C,4B
The Spanish Christian poet Prudentius in the second half of the fourth century said:"God willed peoples of discord and tongues, kingdoms of conflicting laws, to be brought together under an empire, because concord alone knows God. Hence He taught all nations to bow their necks under the same laws and to become Romans. Common rights made all men equal and bound the vanquished with the bonds of fraternity. The City is the fatherland of all humanity, our very blood is mingled, and one stock is woven out of many races. This is the fruit of the triumphs of Rome; they opened the doors for Christ to enter." {82}
Quote ID: 3782
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 193
Section: 3C
Constantine’s favor was three-fold: the extension of privileges to the Christian clergy that had long been enjoyed by the priests of the civil cult, i.e., exemptions from economic and military burdens; legalization of ecclesiastical courts as part of Roman law, i.e., giving them equal validity with the imperial ones so that litigants might be tried in either; and corporate rights to the Church, i.e., permission to receive and to hold property, which gradually made it a wealthy institution.
Quote ID: 3783
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 194
Section: 2C,3C
For nearly three hundred and fifty years it had been the duty of Roman emperors to support the idea that the favor of the gods had caused the greatness of Rome, a fact which makes it understandable why Constantine and his successors down to Gratian kept the ancient title Pontifex maximus as heads of the State-cult, and also why Constantine, until the middle of his life, kept emblems of the pagan gods on his coinage.
Quote ID: 3784
Time Periods: 04
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 196
Section: 3C
His conversion, assuming that he experienced one, was gradual rather than the result of any single event such as his seeing the Cross in the heavens in 312 or his baptism in 337. Perhaps a fair statement of the problem of Constantine’s religion is that his interest in Christianity was first aroused by political motives since he saw in the Church a heretofore unused means to unify the State and on it to found a dynasty and that only gradually did he lean toward it as a religion.
Quote ID: 3786
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 197
Section: 2B2,3C
He is, perhaps, unique as the one human being to have enjoyed the distinction of being deified as a pagan god while, at the same time, he was popularly venerated as a Christian saint.{20}
Quote ID: 3787
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 197
Section: 3C,3A1,4B
By aligning itself with the imperial trend, the Church caused essential changes in its inner life. As soon as a mere profession of Christianity was enough to lead to political and social preferment, the pristine virtues of simplicity and sincerity yielded to hypocrisy. Many professed Christians were pagans at heart.
Quote ID: 3788
Time Periods: 45
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 205
Section: 3C,3A1
Constantine confirmed the action and all who refused to accept it were anathematized.{44} It became law, with the Church thus becoming a division of government.
Quote ID: 3797
Time Periods: 4
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire
Peter Brown
Book ID: 183 Page: 65
Section: 3A2A,3C
An acute sense of the need for physical courage led Ammianus, though loyal to the old gods, to speak with respect of the Christian cult of the martyrs. No better than executed criminals and objects of charnel horror to many others,{147} true Christian martyrs impressed Ammianus because, like philosophers, they had put their bodies “on the line” by facing suffering and death:….
Quote ID: 4044
Time Periods: 234
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 60
Section: 3C
Yet, only nine years after Diocletian had erected his monument, the emperor Constantine entered Rome on October 29, 312, having defeated his rival, Maxentius…….
A ruthless politician, his first step was to eclipse the memory of Maxentius. He did this by filling the traditional center of the city with monuments which were totally intelligible to old-fashioned Romans (such as the triumphal arch, the Arch of Constantine, which still stands opposite the Colosseum on the road that led to the Forum). These references contained no reference to Christianity.
Quote ID: 6696
Time Periods: 4
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 61
Section: 3C
He occupied Rome in 312. But this did not give him the total power he wanted. Only 12 years later, in 324, did he take over the eastern half of the empire in a series of bloody battles. And he did all this without attributing his success in any way to correct religion toward the ancient gods. It was in this pointed absence of piety toward the gods, as the traditional guardians of the empire, that his subjects came to realize that their emperor was a Christian.
Quote ID: 6697
Time Periods: 4
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 61
Section: 3C
The Council of Nicaea was supposed to be an “ecumenical” – that is, a “worldwide” – council. It included even a token party of bishops from distant Persia. And what Constantine wished from it was uniformity. Even the date of Easter was agreed upon, so that all Christian churches in all regions should celebrate the principal festival of the Church at exactly the same time. This concern for universal uniformity, devoted to the worship of one God only, was the opposite of the colorful variety of religions, of religious festivals each happening in its own place at its own time, which had characterized the empire when it had been a polytheist “commonwealth of cities.”
Quote ID: 6698
Time Periods: 4
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 85
Section: 3C
Constantinople was not a city without gods. Constantine had deliberately drained the eastern provinces of their pagan art-works so as to turn his new city into an astonishing open-air museum of the art of the classical world. A “post-pagan” world was not, by any means, necessarily a Christian world.
Quote ID: 6706
Time Periods: 4
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 211
Section: 3C
Constantine himself appears to have lived quite satisfactorily in both worlds, offering prayers to the pagan and Christian gods with the same profound devotion. On occasion he wore the Cross on his helmet, and sometimes appeared with one of the Holy Nails set in his golden diadem. He protected Christians, but he also protected pagans; and during all his visits to Rome except perhaps the last he continued to offer public vows to Jupiter Capitolinus. On some of his coins were stamped the figures of Sol Invictus and Jupiter Conservator, while on others we see the labarum or an altar surmounted with a Cross. No one has ever succeeded in discovering his true beliefs; perhaps he had none.
Quote ID: 4433
Time Periods: 4
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 212
Section: 3C
it was widely believed that his extreme deference to the bishops sitting in council implied a greater deference to Christ, but it is possible that he attended the councils of the pagan priests with the same humble air.
Quote ID: 4434
Time Periods: 4
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 212
Section: 3C
now in the Pennsylvania University Museum which shows him riding in triumph, attended by his lictors. He wears a laurel crown, while a winged genius holds a crown of gold above his head. The reins hang slack from his left hand, but in his right he displays the tyche, the mysterious symbol of his possession over the city. In front of him are displayed the fasces and a sign with the ancient inscription: SPQR. We see two slaves beside the chariot, two soldiers, a woman mourning, but they are no more than artistic decoration:
Quote ID: 4435
Time Periods: 4
Shape of the Liturgy, The
Dom Gregory Dix
Book ID: 272 Page: 399
Section: 2E1,3C
It is therefore not surprising to find that the earliest mention of a special liturgical garment for use at christian worship comes from the Near East, and specifically from Jerusalem. We learn incidentally from Theodoret that c. a.d. 330 Constantine had presented to his new cathedral church at Jerusalem as part of its furnishing a ‘sacred robe’ (hieran stolēn) of gold tissue to be worn by the bishop when presiding at the solemn baptisms of the paschal vigil. {1}
Quote ID: 6845
Time Periods: 4
Theodosian Code, The
Clyde Pharr, Theresa Sherrer. Davidson, Mary Brown. Pharr, and C. Dickerman. Williams
Book ID: 293 Page: 472
Section: 2A4,3C
TITLE 10: PAGANS, SACRIFICES, AND TEMPLES{1} (DE PAGANIS, SACRIFICIIS, ET TEMPLIS)I. Emperor Constantine Augustus to Maximus.{2}
If it should appear that any part of Our palace or any other public work has been struck by lightning, the observance of the ancient custom shall be retained, and inquiry shall be made of the soothsayers as to the portent thereof. Written records thereof shall be very carefully collected and referred to Our Wisdom. Permission shall be granted to all other persons also to appropriate this custom to themselves, provided only that they abstain from domestic sacrifices,{3} which are specifically prohibited.
I. You shall know, furthermore, that We have received the official report and the interpretation thereof which was written about the striking of the amphitheater by lightning, about which you had written to Heraclianus, Tribune and Master of Offices.
Given on the sixteenth day before the kalends of January at Sofia (Serdica).—December 17, (320). Received on the eighth day before the ides of March in the year of the second consulship of Crispus and Constantine Caesars.—March 8, 321.
Quote ID: 9329
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 14
Section: 3C
Valens owed his throne entirely to his elder brother, the great and warlike Valentinian, who had been elected emperor by the army and, against sincere advice,{28} had chosen his brother to rule jointly with him in the collegial custom which the beleaguered empire had followed for nearly a century.{29}
Quote ID: 7046
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 14
Section: 3C
Valens in the East had been overshadowed and implicitly protected by the ferocious military prowess of his brother,{31} but a year earlier Valentinian had died suddenly, of a stroke, while angrily haranguing some barbarian envoys.{32} The Western throne had passed to his teenage son Gratian, who also lived in the shadow of the heroic dead emperor.
Quote ID: 7047
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C,3B1
As an earnest of the treaty{42} the two chieftains agreed to give a large number of hostages to the empire, and they were questioned on their adherence to the religion of the emperor, which was Arian Christianity.{43}Pastor John’s note - Valens Eastern 370’s
Quote ID: 7048
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C
Revolt might have broken out then had not Fritigern, a shrewd strategist, disguised his anger at the treatment of his people and, presenting a reasonable face to the Romans, persuaded the Visigoths to bide their time.{48}
Quote ID: 7049
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C
Valens, through the venality and incompetence of his officials, now had to face a war with the Visigoths well inside Roman territory, which proved to be inconclusive and destructive to the frontier provinces.
Quote ID: 7050
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 21
Section: 3C
When, long before, Valentinian had been debating whom to choose as an imperial colleague, his trusted general and supporter, Dagalaif,{85} had given him very outspoken advice: if you are thinking of your family then appoint your brother, but if you are thinking of the empire then appoint someone else.
Quote ID: 7055
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 23
Section: 3C
Sapin was a region where Christianity had taken hold early and, unlike the older Italian senatorial families, they were firmly Christians of the Nicene creed and numbered bishops among their friends and connections.{2}
Quote ID: 7056
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 26
Section: 1A,3C
By 330 the empire had been rebuilt, but in a new form. It was now more centralised, absolutist and organised on semi-military lines for an indefinite siege.
Quote ID: 7060
Time Periods: 14
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 27
Section: 3C
Rome itself had ceased to be the effective centre of the government of the empire.
Quote ID: 7061
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 39
Section: 3C
At Milan, the court of Valentinian II was dominated by his mother Justina, widow of the great Valentinian, the old loyalist Praetorian Prefect, Petronius Probus, hastily called out of retirement, and the redoubtable bishop Ambrose.{29}
Quote ID: 7074
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3C
Maximus made much of his Catholic orthodoxy, perhaps hoping to open and exploit divisions between the Arian court of Justina, the mother of Valentinian, and the fiercely Catholic Ambrose.
Quote ID: 7075
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3C
Valentinian was reproved in patronising fashion by Maximus for tolerating Arianism within his territories, in contrast with the zeal with which Maximus himself had adopted and enforced Catholic Christianity.{37}
Quote ID: 7076
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3A2A,3C
Maximus had been baptised soon after assuming the purple -- possibly immediately following the murder of Gratian in late 383 {38} -- and thenceforth pursued a rigorously orthodox religious policy, marked by the notorious execution of the bishop Priscillian, {39} the first execution for the radically new offence of heresy.....
Quote ID: 7077
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 41
Section: 3C
He now opened negotiations with the new Great King of Persia, Shapur III, with the aim of stabilising the Eastern frontier by treaty so that it would not need the presence of large forces in the near future.….
A renewal of peaceful coexistence was essential now that a new monarch was on the Persian throne.
Quote ID: 7078
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 47
Section: 3C
When Constantine made his historic alliance between the Roman state and the Christian church, he had hoped, among other things, that this new, energetic and disciplined religion would buttress his unified empire with a unified faith.1
Quote ID: 7082
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 51/52
Section: 3C
Constantine had enjoined toleration, and did not object to the dedication of temples in his honour, provided only that ’superstitious’ rites - mainly sacrifice - were avoided.{15}
Quote ID: 7094
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 52
Section: 3A2,3C
The early Christian emperors were doubtless sincere in their faith, but they never forgot that they were Roman emperors first and foremost.….
They used the church to further their own ends, and constantly played one faction off against another or resorted to crude imperial authority to get their way.
Quote ID: 7096
Time Periods: 4
Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Book ID: 282 Page: 70
Section: 2A1,3C
They may have recalled the tired old prejudice, that the main reason Constantine had embraced Christianity was that it was the only religion that was prepared to wash away his murders with a sprinkling of holy water.{35}
Quote ID: 7131
Time Periods: 4
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 166
Section: 3C
Constantine did not make Christianity the State religion. He was obviously attentive to other religious sensibilities, but he went beyond Gallienus’s edict of tolerance with a series of pro-Christian ordinances.
Quote ID: 6993
Time Periods: 4
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 173
Section: 3C
He planned to shift his capital to the East, where he had grown up. He said his Rome would be Sardis, a city of Asia Minor, and thought also of making Troy his capital, which would have brought history full circle. Finally, after a further vision, he decided on another site with seven hills and on the same latitude as Rome but in a better strategic position, easily defensible and with a splendid harbour. It would be a new Christian Rome in contrast to the older and still vigorously pagan one. Begun in 324, on the site of Byzantium, it was dedicated in 330. New Rome became known as Constantinople, which today is called Istanbul.
Quote ID: 6996
Time Periods: 4
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 175
Section: 3A1,3C
Some of the legislation under Constantine shows obvious Christian influence, such as an ordinance forbidding branding of criminals’ faces, because “man is made in God’s image”. An ordinance allowing Christians to free slaves in a bishop’s presence merely extended a facility already available in pagan temples, but bishops were also allowed to arbitrate civil cases. It suggests that the Church was attracting men able to administer justice as least as well as State officials. An ordinance allowing people even on their deathbeds to bequeath whatever they liked to the Church was a favour not shared by Jewish or schisatic communities. Constantine compensated Christians for damages under the persecution, while a fixed proportion of provincial revenues was assigned to church charities.
Quote ID: 6997
Time Periods: 4
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 179
Section: 1A,3A2,3C
After Constantine, Christians had only themselves to fear.
Quote ID: 6999
Time Periods: 4
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