Page 85 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

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Selection from Eusebius: The Conversion of Constantine

Now it was made in the following manner. A long sented an indescribable degree of beauty to the
spear, overlaid with gold, formed the figure of the beholder.This banner was of a square form, and the
cross by means of a transverse bar laid over it. On the upright staff, whose lower section was of great length,
top of the whole was fixed a wreath of gold and pre- bore a golden half-length portrait of the pious
cious stones; and within this, the symbol of the Sav- emperor and his children on its upper part, beneath
iour’s name, two letters indicating the name of Christ the trophy of the cross, and immediately above the
by means of its initial characters, the letter P being embroidered banner.
intersected by X in its centre: and these letters the The emperor constantly made use of this sign of
emperor was in the habit of wearing on his helmet at salvation as a safeguard against every adverse and
a later period. From the cross-bar of the spear was hostile power, and commanded that others similar to
suspended a cloth, a royal piece, covered with a pro- it should be carried at the head of all his armies.
fuse embroidery of most brilliant precious stones; and Source: Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers (Vol I). 2nd series. (1990). New York:
which, being also richly interlaced with gold, pre- Christian Literature Co.

based on pagan examples such as the great temples of what, but on the eve of battle with his rival Maxentius at
Artemis at Ephesus and Jupiter at Baalbek) that set the the Milvian Bridge, Constantine claims that he saw a
style for Christian architecture and iconography for cross against a bright sun and the words “In hoc signo
nearly two millennia; and, most important, by raising his vincit” (“By this sign shall you conquer”). Instructing his
sons—who reigned after him for another thirty years— soldiers to affix this cross symbol to their shields, Con-
as Christians, thus ensuring Christianity’s victory over stantine won the battle—and the Western empire.
paganism. Somewhat later, under the influence of his mother and
The son of the Western Emperor Constantius Chlorus her confessor, the Christian bishop Eusebius, Constantine
(reigned 305–306 CE), Constantine was acclaimed em- became persuaded that his vision came not from Mithras
peror by the legions in Eboracum (modern York, En- but from Jesus Christ, the Christian god. The resulting
gland) after his father’s sudden death. A series of civil Edict of Milan (313 CE) granted Christianity official tol-
wars ensued, ending with Constantine in sole control of eration and marked the end of the pagan Roman empire.
the empire by 324 CE. In 330 he founded a new—and Though Constantine’s vision has often been seen as a cyn-
overtly Christian—capital in the ruined city of Byzan- ical ploy to gain Christian favor, the very small number of
tium, renaming it “Constantinopolis” (Constantinople, Christians in the empire, especially in the western half
now Istanbul) after himself, which proved strategically (about 5 percent of the empire’s overall population was
important; in fact, it protected medieval Christendom Christian, and most of lived in the eastern half), suggests
from Islamic conquest. In 337 on his way to attack the that the vision and conversion should be seen instead as
Persians, Constantine died of natural causes at about the a bit of clever politicking on the part of the then-
age of fifty-two near ancient Nicomedia, and was buried persecuted Christians to gain favor, if not ascendancy, in
as a Christian in Constantinople. the empire. In this Constantine did not disappoint.
Though his mother (canonized as St. Helena) had long Besides promoting Christians into all levels of the
been a Christian convert, before the Battle of the Milvian Roman administration, Constantine issued a variety of
Bridge (312 CE), Constantine and many of his soldiers edicts and orders giving Christians financial rewards and
seem to have been devotees of Mithraism, a pagan mys- legal immunities not enjoyed by others. He also prohib-
tical religion associated with sun worship but holding ited gladiatorial games and animal sacrifices, and in 330
some doctrinal and ritual similarities to Christianity, CE, to finance the building of his new capital of Constan-
including the symbol of the cross. Accounts differ some- tinopolis, ordered the ransacking of the pagan temples of