The reign of Constantine is certainly an important turning point in the history of Rome and in the history of the church. Please read through the Edict of Milan (either the hard-copy I gave you, or the online edition here. Cite one line that particularly well shows a way in which Constantine changes things for the church.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Edict of Milan (Extra Credit)
The reign of Constantine is certainly an important turning point in the history of Rome and in the history of the church. Please read through the Edict of Milan (either the hard-copy I gave you, or the online edition here. Cite one line that particularly well shows a way in which Constantine changes things for the church.
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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.
This allowed for the churches to reopen and made it lgal for people to worship freely. it also gave the land back to the churches that was taken from them for free. It seems like an attempt to say sorry he you go have your things back we are sorry, but I think it is more of an award, like a medal. They were awarded for withstanding centuries of persecutioun and torture by having the government say wow we threw everything at you and you kept your head held high. The church became a body or entity for the people to rally around and the church blew up after the legalization of christianity. With in like a 30 or 60 year period, I believe like 75 % of the roman empire was christian, something that would not be possilbe without the edict of milan.
"Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia in 337, just before he died. (Deathbed baptisms were common at the time.) During his life he had brought Christianity from the position of being a persecuted minority to the dominant power in religious life in the Roman Empire."
First I want to say that I find it interesting that Constantine was baptized prior to his death and that was a common practice. In most Christian practices these days, baptism occurs when a person is just an infant. I think one of the reasons why Constantine and many other high ranking Christians were baptized prior to death was because they wanted to wash away all of their sins. Also because many of them were not born in a Christian family, therefore were never baptized.
Second I want to say that I admire Constantine for making Christianity the dominant religion in Rome. Previous emperors, were Pagans and tried many tactics including violence to wipe out the Christian minority. Now after the emperorship of Constantine, the Christians are the ones controlling Rome and the Pagans are now the minority. Alex Mason
"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."
In this line the church once again for the Christian faith can open its doors and have followers come in and listen to what the Christians have to say and offer. Up until now the Christians were being exicuted and most people that were Christian could be killed if they didn't go away from that religon, but once Constantine came to power he restored the Christian church and not only did he let people worhship there again it became the main religon in Rome. In a way it's crazy to think that after near death of this religon, it now would become the main and most popular religon in the Roman empire.
Eric Bengs
I belive the line that reads "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 oppurtunity of religious worship." This line basically is almost a type of "well if you can't beat them join them." For so long the Roman people had persecuted the Christians. Now suddenly Constantine has basically said go ahead and worship Christianity without fear. This is a major step for the Roman people. However it created seperatism between Romans who worshipped Christianity and the old pagan gods. This was something the Empire didn't need at that time. But at the same time it created a little stability in the empire because it meant there were no longer these massed killings in the empire.
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