Constantine was the first Roman Emperor who declared himself to be a Christian, and therefore gave himself a unique position in the history books. Following his declaration of becoming a follower of Christ, he proceeded to involve himself heavily in the church. Constantine, though he had some positive effects on the church, also brought along many negative affects, such as false followers in the church, division, and heavy political involvement in the church.
Though Constantine did in fact make Christianity, along with other religions, tolerated and therefore eliminated persecution, his political involvement in the church was not a positive development. One article about Constantine says: “By granting toleration to the Christians, Constantine hoped to incorporate the bishops and priests into the imperial administration, thereby increasing his political power” (Jeffrey). Though Constantine expanded the church with bishops, he also secured his hold on his political status and gained the support of the Christians. He may have been a true Christian, and there is no real way to know if he was or wasn’t. Constantine was a politician first, figuring out ways to win over people and gain their support, and a Christian second. Also, when many people started to come into the church after the Edict of Milan, the church started to lose some of its identity. Constantine’s reaction was to assemble a group of people to fix the situation. The assembled group of people, known as the Council of Nicaea, helped form The Nicene Creed. “The resulting Nicene Creed, heavily influenced by Constantine, was on of the first definitions of Christian theology”(Jeffrey). Every Sunday, churches around the world still say the Nicene Creed; an amazing definition of Christianity and what it means. Why did the church need a Roman Emperor to tell them who they were? The following article says; “While it did not quell debate on the nature of Christianity, the Nicene Creed did illustrate the Roman Emperor’s control of the evolving church”(Jeffrey). If anyone was ever in doubt of Constantine’s hold on the church, the Nicene Creed was, and still is, the ultimate example. Not only had Constantine gotten a hold of the church but had now engraved himself into the church, making him invaluable to the church. He helped define the church starting with the Edict of Milan.
Before Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, Christians were ruthlessly persecuted and rejected, having gone through many trials. Many Christians buckled under the pressure, committed heresy and rejected Christ. Many died in martyrdom for their beliefs. It makes you wonder, what happened to the rest of them? The rest of the Christians that lived through all of that persecution became stronger in their faith and continued to remain in church, passing on their stories. Some may have left but many of them grew in their faith. When Constantine started favoring the Christian church, many people decided to make a wise, personal political choice; they flocked to the church. Except there was one problem, it was just that; a political move. Many of the people did not go to the church because they felt drawn to it; they went because their emperor favored the church and they wanted to be on his good side. “For them, the fact that the emperors declared themselves Christian, and that for this reason people were flocking to the church, was not a blessing, but rather a great apostasy”(González). Indeed it was a great apostasy because one of the benefits of Christianity was its small, close knit community, bound together by their faith. With all of these “believers” flocking to the church undoubtedly the communities were no longer as close knit as they were before. In this article, the author talks about the affects of people coming into the church after the Edict of Milan; “...people were flocking into the church in such numbers that there was little time to prepare them for baptism, and even less to guide them in the Christian life once they had been baptized” (26. González). Before, there were few people who would choose a life of persecution. Before the Edict of Milan that is exactly what Christians were choosing; a life of persecution, so they had other people to personally guide them. Even today, we are faced, especially in America, with the same problems. In 1701, a man named Thomas Bray helped found the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Though the name of the society is deceiving, the goal was not attract more people to Christianity, but train them for the mission field and to become ministers and, in general, to educate new members of the church on how to become a strong Christian. Thomas Bray helped start the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel because he noticed that the American faith was not as strong as it should be. (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.). Many American Christians in modern day claim to be Christians only because it is the “national religion”, not because they actually have a passion for Christ. Similar to the American faith, Roman Christianity was also not as strong as it had been, and should have been. So, in response to this lack of faith and later division of the church, the Nicaean Council was called together to form a solution.
The division of the church was closely followed by the Nicene Creed, which was a failed attempt to patch together the church and unify it again. There was a group of people at that time called the Arians, who did not agree with certain aspects of the Catholic Church, and specifically the Catholic view on the Trinity. They broke apart from the Roman Catholic Church. To put it bluntly and simply; “Arianism divided the Catholic Church” (Arianism.). After this, the Nicaean Council gathered together; “The Nicaean Council, which upheld the Catholic view of the essential unity of the godhead, embodied the summary of the Catholic faith that formed the basis of the Nicene Creed, but the controversy continued for the next several decades”(Arianism.). The Nicaean Council held up the Catholic view of the church, but the whole reason Arianism formed was because they didn’t agree with the Catholic view of the church, and specifically the Trinity. The purpose of the Nicene Creed was to unify the church under one definition, but as stated in the previous article “...the controversy continued for the next several decades”(Arianism.). Things were never fully resolved and the church, even now, is still split up into different branches and into two differing groups; “Catholicism” and “Protestantism.” “Others with a negative reaction to the new state of affairs felt that the best course was simply to break communion with the church at large, ...which was to be considered sinful and apostate” (González). This “new state of affairs” would be Constantine’s influence on the church and his political hold on it and the “Others” would be the soon-to-be Arians, breaking away from the church. Not only did they break apart from the church, they committed a heresy by breaking away from it. For the Roman Catholic church, this meant complete rejection. Even if Constantine had not gotten ahold of the church, it would have probably divided eventually, but Constantine helped the division happen sooner. Then, by trying to fix it with the Nicaean Council, he just kept it apart. He tried to put everything together the Catholic way in the Nicene Creed, but that was the problem to begin with; the Arians did not agree with the Catholics. The Arians ended up creating their own “Creed” by taking certain aspects and phrases from the Nicene Creed and forming their Apostles Creed. In modern Christian Churches, most Protestants use the Apostles Creed and Catholics use the Nicene Creed. Even today, Protestants and Catholics are still separated by their beliefs as evident in the saying of their separate “Creeds”.
Though Constantine may have had good intentions, many of the influences he had over the church ended badly. The division of the church, though not entirely his fault, was brought on faster by him. The bringing of false followers into the church were brought into the church by him and his heavy political involvement. All three of these aspects degraded the church. Even today, we are still suffering from the effects the Constantine bought into the church.
Works Cited
1. "Arianism." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2011
2. J.F., Matthews, and Nicol Donald MacGillivray. "Constantine I." Britannica Biographies (2010): 1. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
3. Bowman, Jeffrey. “CONSTANTINE I, THE GREAT.” Constantine I, The Great (2009). 1-3. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 22 Oct. 2011
4. "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
