When the Church Derailed

Reverend E Wilbur (copyrightEW/SSA/reg1009)

There was much horrific suffering in the Church from 33AD to 312AD. The Roman Empire and its parts ruled the of the world where Christianity was found, and the Roman Empire did not like Christianity - at all. From the Crucifixion of Jesus to the burning books and saints the Roman empire hated it. The Roman empire was based on domination, and Christianity was based on Love. The Roman empire was based on exploitation, and Christianity insisted on Justice. The Romans wanted slaves, and the Christians freedom. Rome wanted expansion to exploit more places, but Christians wanted to develop interiorly. Rome insisted on devotion to the state and Christians insisted on devotion to the teachings of Jesus and to God. In Rome the power trickled down from the emperor to the senate and the soldiers, but with Christianity empowerment rose up through the slaves, children, and women. Rome worshiped many gods and Christians only one. Rome was the end and be all of a Roman's life. A recent example of how the people viewed the state is Nazi Germany. In both, education was to become a better citizen of the empire. Marriage was a state function to produce more soldiers and breeder-mothers for the state. All public and private life was ordered to benefit the state. Any thing that could threaten that was looked at with narrow, flinty eyed suspicion.

Rome feared everything they held dear would be swept away if Christianity was allowed to continue. Rome made every attempt it could to crush it. Persecutions of Christians became a regular event. Martyrs in the Colosseum bore witness to their faith and the one place were the might of Rome and the world of Christianity touched was at the games. Christianity won, for as Christians died Rome was awed. After two particularly brutal emperors one came along who offered to burn Christian books in place of people. This, by the way, is why we have so few writings of the early Church. Still Christianity grew and one day a woman who would become the mother of an emperor became a Christian.

 The empire was everything to Constantine. His father was a great general and an emperor of part of the original empire of Rome. Emperor Constantius I put Constantine and his mother away, in order to enter into a more advantageous marriage. Having been forsaken by his dad Constantine drew closer to his mother. From what we know, her faith was very strong and may have influenced the separation. In the interest of the state, Constantine over looked it. As the empire was falling into pieces and Constantine went to war, the motivation to reunite the empire was strong. At his father's death he acquired much of northern Europe and he had  but one thing to do to have the empire be less fractured, so he continued on to Italy.

After one fortuitous battle Constantine declared the God of the Christians gave him victory. Soon after he issued an edict stating that Christianity was no longer an illegal religion. I was told as a child by religious teachers that Constantine made Christianity the state religion. What I know now from historical documents is that he made Christianity legal. Here is a translated copy of the decree from the UMW website:

The Edict of Milan

Constantine Augustus and Licinius Augustus

The persecution of Christians ended in 313 when Constantine of the West and Licinius of the East proclaimed the Edict of Milan, which established a policy of religious freedom for all.

This is an English translation of the edict:

When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I, Licinius Augustus, fortunately met near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought, among other things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations pertaining to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule. And thus by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we thought to arrange that no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, of that religion which he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to whose worship we freely yield our hearts) may show in all things His usual favour and benevolence.

Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.

Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially we esteemed it best to order that if it happens anyone heretofore has bought from our treasury from anyone whatsoever, those places where they were previously accustomed to assemble, concerning which a certain decree had been made and a letter sent to you officially, the same shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception, Those, moreover, who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at once to the Christians. Besides, both those who have purchased and those who have secured them by gift, are to appeal to the vicar if they seek any recompense from our bounty, that they may be cared for through our clemency. All this property ought to be delivered at once to the community of the Christians through your intercession, and without delay. And since these Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which they were accustomed to assemble, but also other property, namely the churches, belonging to them as a corporation and not as individuals, all these things which we have included under the above law, you will order to be restored, without any hesitation or controversy at all, to these Christians, that is to say to the corporations and their conventicles: providing, of course, that the above arrangements be followed so that those who return the same without payment, as we have said, may hope for an indemnity from our bounty. In all these circumstances you ought to tender your most efficacious intervention to the community of the Christians, that our command may be carried into effect as quickly as possible, whereby, moreover, through our clemency, public order may be secured. Let this be done so that, as we have said above, Divine favor towards us, which, under the most important circumstances we have already experienced, may, for all time, preserve and prosper our successes together with the good of the state. Moreover, in order that the statement of this decree of our good will may come to the notice of all, this rescript, published by your decree, shall be announced everywhere and brought to the knowledge of all, so that the decree of this, our benevolence, cannot be concealed.

From Lactantius, De Mort. Pers., ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat. XI).

   Translated in University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press [1897?-1907?]), Vol 4:, 1, pp. 28-30. This text is in the public domain.

Remember, in all of this he does not become a Christian, nor does he make Christianity THE state religion. He was supportive of Christianity, though. Later he went on to conquer the eastern empire because Christians who were supportive of him were being abused, but nowhere does he state it is was for any reason that it was good for the empire. Constantine became the sole ruler of one empire. In the interest of effective rule uniformity not Unity became important to him . With his mother in the Levant on a relic finding and Church building, tour he begins to think about how to hammer out a uniform Christianity.

Christianity itself was not really what was foremost on his mind, though. The empire and his rule is what concerned him most. When squabbles broke out between one form of Christians against another form, he lead his army into North Africa and fought the Donatist Christians. Later on with his reputation as a ruler in mind he executed his wife and son. Constantine's favorite god was his father's: Sol Invictus. It was not long before the holy days of Sol Invictus were celebrated as Christians holy days (which is done even to this day two examples are the Christian day of worship moved from Saturday to Sunday the worship day of Sol Invictus and the nativity of Sol Invictus, December 25 became the celebration of the birth of Jesus). During this time he also is benefactor to other Pagan religions. Many of the public works he commissioned were to Pagan gods not the God of the Christians.