How a Vision of One Roman Emperor Helped Christianity’s Rise
And how the Romans went from suppressing Christianity to promoting it
Christianity has played a significant role in the history of western civilization. It has been the focal point of the western world for centuries. But this wasn’t always the case. Christianity actually suffered a lot in its early stages until one Roman emperor had a vision so divine that it changed Western civilization forever!
That Roman emperor was Constantine the Great.
Christianity has its roots in the teachings of Jesus and writings of Paul the Apostle and originated in 1st-century Judea. Today, Judea is part of Israel and Palestine, but back then, it was a Roman province. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism, and Paul the Apostle’s missionary work helped spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
But 1st-century Christianity was a very suppressed religion in the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire before Christianity followed paganism, which allowed practises such as polytheism and made sacrifices. These practises were against the ideology of Christianity. Christians also did not worship Roman pagan gods, which was against the Roman imperial cult. This cult recognised Roman emperors and their families as divine deities.
There was a belief that reverence for imperial cults and Roman gods was necessary for the smooth functioning and continued existence of the Roman Empire. Those who did not adhere to the state religion were severely punished and persecuted. With all these factors, Christianity was seen as a threat to the Emperor and the Roman Empire as a whole. Hence, Christians were persecuted on a mass level.
But this all changed after Constantine’s vision and his victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.
Now I cannot go deep into the history of events, as that is beyond the scope of this article. But I will try my best to explain the situation!
What happened is that, after the Crisis of the Third Century, Empire was ruled by a tetrarchy from 293 AD. There was Emperor Diocletian and his three subordinates: Galerius, Maximian, and Constantius (Constantine’s father). These four formed the tetrarchy.
But the tetrarchy was short-lived. The power struggle and conflicts among the successors resulted in only two persons staying as rulers in the end. They were Constantine and Maxentius (Maximian’s son). But each one of them wanted the entire empire for himself. Both were engaged in open hostilities, which led to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 AD.
An interesting event happened the day before the battle, on October 27, 312 AD. Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky with the command, “In this sign, you will conquer.” Constantine was amazed to have this vision. On the same night, Christ appeared to him in a dream and asked him to fight under the same sign of the cross in all his future battles, which would lead him to victory. Constantine followed his vision and had Chi-Rho painted on the shields of his army. Chi and Rho are the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ. On the day of battle, Constantine surprisingly won a decisive victory despite being outnumbered by Maxentius’s troops.
This victory strengthened Constantine’s belief in this new religion called Christianity. He started worshipping the god he saw in his dream. He started learning more about this new religion and converted to Christianity.
This move safeguarded Christianity in the empire. After the conversion, he passed the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, which legalised Christianity and stopped the persecution of Christians within the Roman Empire. Even though the edict did not make Christianity the state religion and the majority of Roman citizens continued to practise their pagan religion, it opened the door for Christianity’s quick spread throughout the kingdom.
Christianity continued to grow in the Roman Empire after the death of Constantine in 337 AD. The Romans who once crucified Jesus began to spread Christianity. It became so popular that it was adopted as the state religion in 380 AD in the Edict of Thessalonica, passed by Emperor Theodosius I.
In the following centuries, most of the Roman Empire converted to Christianity. This also facilitated the rise of Christianity outside the empire. Christianity spread throughout most of the western world via missionaries from the Catholic Church.
In this way, Constantine’s vision and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge shaped the religious future of the Western World.
