Maxentius had his army in Rome, while Constantine was in Gaul with his army. Maxentius wanted to rule by himself but he knew Constantine would not go without a fight. Constantine had been raised to worship one god, the unconquered sun, soul of Sol and Victus. Like his father, he had some sympathies toward Christianity and that is why under his father the persecution had not been so severe. Constantine was planning to march on Rome. The night before leaving he had either a dream (Lactantius, a Christian apologist) or a vision (Eusebius, bishop and historian), where he saw the Greek letters X and P printed on top of each other for Christ (the Chi-Ro) on his troops shields with the words "by this conquer." He interpreted this as divine revelation from the Christian God and emblazoned this monogram onto his shields. An overconfident Maxentius marched out of Rome with an army of about 190,000 men, but was pushed back to the Tiber River and defeated by Constantine's much smaller army at Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. Constantine became the sole Emperor in the West.

This was at least the beginning of Constantine's identification of himself as a Christian. In January 313, he persuaded Licinius the Emperor in the East, to issue the Edict of Milan with him, in which Christianity was legally sanctioned as a religion. This marks a turning point in the history of the Church and of Europe. At the time Christians constituted about one fifth the people of the West and up to one half of the Eastern population in some areas. Constantine's letters from 313 on leave little doubt that he considered himself a Christian who believed his imperial duty was to maintain the unity of the Empire and the Church.

His writings show that he genuinely believed Christianity was the true religion and his legislation clearly favored Christianity (though he did not outlaw paganism). Shortly after his great victory he said that he owed the Christian "God my whole soul, every breath and every stirring of my mind, wholly and completely." He said that Christianity was the divine law and he consecrated himself to fighting for the causes of the Christian God. However, he was probably not baptized until his death bed in 337 A.D. It has been suggested he chose to remain a catechumen because if he were baptized and fell into mortal sin, repentance and penance might be severe. Baptism would bring about the forgiveness of all his sins without a humiliating penance attached to it.

When Licinius in the East reneged on the religious freedom promised and began another persecution of the Christians in 320, Constantine defeated him in a civil war. Licinius, aided by Goth mercenaries, represented the past and the ancient faith of paganism. Constantine and his Franks marched under the Christianized standard of the labarum (cross), and both sides saw the battle in religious terms. Supposedly outnumbered, but fired by their zeal, Constantine's army and navy emerged victorious.

Constantine adopted the Christian ethic, proclaiming Sunday as a day of rest, though not for farmers. He declared Christ's birthday be celebrated on December 25th, the day of the former feast of the unconquered sun. The Church accepted this and thus sanctified even this pagan holiday by turning it over to Christ. He called for building of churches and basilicas with public funds on sites of the great holy places. Examples include the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, churches in Jerusalem and several in Rome (St. John Lateran in 313 and Old St. Peter's Basilica in 324). He gave money for the copying of Bibles and he demanded that a certain percentage of the revenue of the government be given to the Church for their services. Slaves or prisoners were not to be branded on the face nor abused, since they too were made in God's image. He outlawed civil divorce, the exposure of children, and gladiator fights because they were opposed to Christian teaching. He gave certain benefits to under-classed citizens making legal Christian charity. He prohibited pagan officials offering sacrifice to the gods, at least as a public act, and he destroyed pagan temples and had the artifacts brought to his museum in the new capital of Constantinople (formerly Byzantium). Some have said his initiatives change the faith. This will be the subject of our next column.

Dr. Claude Sasso is Vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph.

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