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When his rival Maxentius invaded the Roman Empire, Constantine marched
as far as the Milvian Bridge to meet him. Yet he was concerned whether he
would defeat Maxentius. Then one night, Constantine had a vision: he saw
the Cross of Christ glowing in the heavens, surrounded by golden rays.
Angels pointed to the Cross, saying to him: "In this sign thou shalt
conquer!"
Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea (Golden Legend) с
1265-66
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Constantine was a merciless Roman emperor.
Not only did he see to the execution of his coruler,
Licinus, he also condemned close relatives to death, among them his son
Crispus and his second wife Fausta. Despite his ruthlessness, however,
Constantine the Great supposedly secured a place in Heaven, a saint who is
still venerated in the Greek Orthodox Church. Although Constantine tended
to sacrifice morals to expediency, he later became a key figure in the
development of Christianity as a world religion. Legend has it that it all
started with a dream.
When Emperor Constantius died in AD 311, there were two
claimants to the throne: Constantine and Maxentius. On 28 October 312, at
the Milvian Bridge, which spanned the Tiber north of Rome, these men
fought the decisive battle over the succession. Constantine is said to
have told the Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea that, on the day
before the battle, a Cross of light appeared to him in
the heavens, bearing the
inscription: "In this sign thou shalt conquer!" Yet according to Jacobus
de Voragine, the leading medieval compiler and specialist on the lives of
the saints, Constantine had his vision at night in a dream. It was based
on this report that the Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca
depicted the vision of Constantine at night, rather than by day. The
artist was commissioned by the wealthiest family of Arezzo to paint a
fresco cycle depicting the Legend of the True Cross for the choir in the
church of San Francesco, and The Dream of Constantine is one
scene in this cycle.
After the vision, it is said that Constantine had the
symbol of the Cross painted on his soldiers' shields, which led them into
their victorious battle. It is impossible to know whether his vision and
the victory really led Constantine to convert to Christianity, but, during
his reign, Christianity was legally established as a religion, enjoying
the same status as the ancient pagan belief in the gods. From 312, Constantine also made impressive donations to the Church
and had the first important Christian churches built. Among them were Old
St Peter's in Rome, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the
Church of the Apostles in Constantinople, the foundation of which today
supports Hagia Sophia. Constantine also introduced Sunday as a day set
aside for church services and promoted the Christianising of public life
by appointing Christians to high office in Rome. In fact, some of his
legal reforms further suggest a Christian influence: criminals were no
longer permitted to be branded on the face and the corporal punishment of
slaves as well as the selling of children was restricted. In 325, in what
is now the western Turkish city of Iznik, Constantine convened the first
synod of bishops: the "Council of Nicaea", which stands out in
ecclesiastical history. For all that though, the Emperor did not consent
to baptism until he was on his deathbed.
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