Who was Emperor Constantine?

Question

All answers are welcome. I want to know what christians have been told about him. In the little reading I've done, I'm curious what the church has to say about him. I cant seem to find any info on him, other than him being just another hitler. but I'm simply gathering info at this point, so any is appreciated.

I say hitler, because I see him as a master manipulator disguised as a saint.

Answer 1

Well he was declared a saint.

I think he was a christian convert and tried to live a good life. I think he let his imperial notions mix with his beliefs as he tried to enforce the very fragmented beliefs of early christians. He didn't want to come up with doctrine but wanted church leaders to do it. He would just enforce it by rule of law.

He got the first concil of nicea rolling. That's when christianity hit the big time and I believe that's when we stopped truly knowing God.

The doctrines that won out were mainly one-sided for a particular group.

Also by that time there were a lot of christians in Rome so I think Constantine was a smart man and realized to rule his empire effectively he would have connect with his people. One way to do that would be with religion.

I think this is when christianity and politics were married.

Answer 2

Constantine did NOT make Christianity the official religion of Rome. That came later. He is the Roman emperor that made Christianity no longer illegal. He also did various things to encourage conversation to Christianity. he knew his empire was collapsing, and he thought that Christianity might be the one thing that could unite it. We're not even sure he himself was Christian. He appeared to appeal to whatever deity was handy at the time and was only baptised on his deathbed.

For example, his first experience with Christianity was at a battle for the imperial crown. He basically said he'd follow whatever deity would help him win, and then had a vision of a Christian symbol.

Constantine knew that if the Church would unite his empire, it had to be more organized, so he encouraged the bishops to codify scripture. The result was the Bible. Before that each church had a random collection of religious books, some of which the bishops determined were false.

I hate no idea why you compare him to Hitler.

You might want to start your research here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I

The movie "Constantine" is about a comic book character. It has nothing to do with the emperor.

Answer 3

He was the first Roman General to use the Chi-Rho for his battle symbol. He had all of his soilders paint it on their sheilds when they were at war with other Roman factions. Chi-rho is a P with an X over it. P is the first letter in the Greek translation for Christ and X is the last letter in the word. On each side of them is the alpha sign on the left and the omega sign on the right. He had this vision come to him in dream and he interpreted as a sign from God. The sign was so intimidating to the other factions that he was triumphant with little loss to his cause. He then became the one true emporer.

Answer 4

Constantine was the first emperor to adopt Christianity as the state blessed religion.

He then made all conquered people practice it. He is primarily responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the world.

Answer 5

He is the Roman emperor that stopped the persecution of Christians. He was encouraged by his mother to be kind to Christians and actually coverted to Christianity on his deathbed.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 6

well constantine is a movie..thats all i know

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I