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How Did Constantine Encourage The Legalization Of Christianity

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Constantine was a 4th century emperor of Rome. His reign followed Diocletian who enacted harsh laws preventing Christians from worshipping freely. Christianity were perceived as a threat to the Roman empire for several reasons. Roman’s saw Christians monotheistic view and loyalty to Christ as opposing the Roman Empire because it did not acknowledge the official gods and did not place the emperor as its most important leader. Additionally, the Romans were trivialized by the claim of turning bread into a divine substance which further discriminated the Christians from the general population. In 313, Constantine ended the Diocletian persecution of Christians and legalized the practice of the religion after receiving a vision at the Battle of Milvian Bridge which said “In hoc signo vinces” meaning by this sign you will …show more content…

Constantine’s legalization of Christianity accelerated the growth of the religion because of the empires vast network of roads and the emperor’s involvement in the Church. This allowed Christianity to become the major religion of Europe. Rome’s network of roads allowed for a wide spread of ideas which allowed Christianity to bigger than a local movement. Constantine also helped Christianity by organizing the first ecumenical council, the Council of Nicea, which allowed the Church to define Christian doctrine. During the Council of Nicea, Arians were excommunicated, the date of Easter was determined, and Trinitarian doctrine was developed. Without the council, the Church may have split into two sects: Arian (the belief that Jesus is below the Father) and Traditional Christianity (the belief that the Jesus is equal to the Father). Because the Christian church was able to grow under Constantine, Christianity eventually became the official religion of Rome and eventually the religion of Medieval Europe. This gave the Franks a

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Contrary to what Diocletian expected, however, the pagans defended their fellow Romans, leading to a remarkable period of religious unity and acceptance amongst the citizens of the Roman Empire (7-8). To this end, the failure of Diocletian’s Christian persecution was a significant factor leading to the eventual domination of Christianity in western society due to the fact that it precipitated the empire’s growing toleration of Christian

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In the Roman Empire, Christianity was not freely practiced until Constantine became emperor and converted to Christianity. Romans were polytheists, and Diocletian, who was emperor of the Roman Empire before Constantine, increased the persecution of Christians. In his Life of Constantine, Eusebius recorded Constantine’s conversion to Christianity after he heard God’s command, “Use in his Wars a Standard made in the Form of the Cross” (Eusebius Ch. XXVIII) before battle with Maxentius, and after he won that battle Constantine converted to Christianity. In Life of Constantine, Eusebius only portrays Constantine as a good Christian emperor.

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1. Constantine was a former soldier that was given the title of Cesare of the West (in the Roman Tetrarchy created by Diocletian), and was assigned to the furthest reach of the empire which was the English city of York. 2. Constantine issues the Edict of Milan which declared official tolerance for Christianity. He also demanded the Christians to change their day of worship from the Hebrew Sabbath to the Roman day of the Sun.

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Then Christianity gets recognition from the Emperor Constantine in 312 and now the church has legitimacy and protection. During

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As centuries went on, more Roman emperors began to accept Christianity. Constantine, who incorporated into it several Greek philosophies, finally legalized it in 313 C.E. Christianity also connected the Romans and “barbarians”, leading it to become a highly positive change in the Roman

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In many societies, ancient and modern, religion has performed a major role in their development, and the Roman Empire was no different. Religion has also became altered over a period of time. From the beginning, Roman religion was polytheistic. However, later on all of their gods would be washed away, and replaced by Christianity. In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and for the first time, meaning people were allowed to openly worship.

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After, Christianity weakened their belief in their emperor. Constantine defeated the Empire, destroying yet another amazing culture.

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Persecution was general under Decius in 250-251 and Valerian’s reign in 257-259, with bishops being particularly targeted to demoralize the community. Then there was a period of complete tolerance from 260-302 before the Great Persecution began under Diocletian 303-313. This was fueled by the fear of the Christian presence in the army and civil service, causing a brutal shock to Christians. This was driven by the need for pagan revival, and it brutally involved the destruction of churches and scriptures, confiscation of property, prohibition of worship, the cancellation of legal and civil rights, arrests of clergy, torture, execution, etc. After the Great Persecution, with unwavering courage, Emperor Constantine, who was a convert to Christianity, issued the Edict of Milan with his co-emperor of the East, Licinius, in 313, which granted Christians and other religions the freedom to worship.

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Diocletian tormented many of the Christians until they perished (Alchin). After about three hundred years, it became easier for the Christians. Constantine, the emperor of Rome at the time, converted to Christianity. This resulted in the end of the persecutions and the beginning of Christendom. In the year 313, Constantine issued to Edict of Milan.

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The development of Christianity There was one religon which was recognized form the middle age was Christianity. Christianity on the middle age was the period of fall of Rome. Basically in the middle age the religon was spreading in to the world introduce it. Churches start to build and slowly the amount of Christian start to increase.

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In the midst of the Cold War in the late 1970’s, Iran was on the brink of revolution. Citizens had grown tired of what they perceived as the attempted ‘westernizing’ of their culture. The tension over this in Iran dated back to the early 1900’s, when the country was then known as Persia. The ruling Qajar Dynasty gave the British access to oil wells in the region. Persians became united over the supposed western threat, leading to a constitutional revolution that created a parliament, weakening the powers of the King.

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In a way, Constantine was honoring the legacy of Cyrus the Great, following in his footsteps of religious tolerance. After such a decree, Christianity spread rapidly and monuments to Constantine were put up en masse. All of these monuments carried a heavy connotation to Christ. A great example of this is the Colossus of Constantine in which he held a spear with a cross fixed at the top5. By having such a Christian display in his monuments, Constantine ensured the establishment of his religion across the Roman Empire and increased the religion’s

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It can be seen that Christianity had the most significant changes in Roman society compared to the other religions. Christianity improved the social, cultural and political way

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Once Constantine became Emperor, he created freedom of Religion. Constantine was an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan, partially because he had converted to Christianity a year before the Edict of Milan was signed and agreed to. The Edict of Milan was a document, created in 313, that granted tolerance toward Christianity. The document had benefits for Christians, which legalized their

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The Edict of Milan (313) was a milestone document promising “to give both to Christians and to all others free facility to follow the religion which each may desire”. Although on the surface it appears that the Edict of Milan was a genuine attempt to give equality before the law to Christians, who were severely persecuted under the previous Emperor Diocletian (r. 284- 305), in reality, a number of political, social and ideological influences on Emperors Constantine (r. 306- 337) and Licinius (r. 308- 324) reveal further motivations for the creation of the edict; primarily among these factors- their political cunning. The political context of the time period gives reasoning to Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, and thereby his motives for the creation of the edict. The Edict of Milan was written in 313 CE; directly following a victory by Constantine at Milvian Bridge in 312, which Constantine attributed to a sign from the Christian God.(1) Constantine believed the Christian God to be the most powerful of all the Gods; to not show support for the Christian God could mean to incur his wrath, but to make peace with him was to have a

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