Six Things I Bet You Did Not Know About Constantine

Caesar Photo by Ilona Frey on Unsplash

I’ve been reading several biographies about Constantine and I’ve got six interesting facts about Constantine you may not have known about.

1. Constantine, much like his father Constantius, started off as a vague monotheist and only gradually identified this “most high god” with the God of Christianity. While many edicts and pronouncements are generally monotheistic, in his letters, Constantine does talk about devotion to Jesus.

2. The Edict of Milan in 313 AD did not merely end the persecution of Christians, it established religious toleration for everyone across the Roman Empire.

3. Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire. Nor did he destroy shrines and temples to Greco-Roman gods. His new city, Constantinople, had pagan subjects and pagan temples. He did preference Christianity but he didn’t persecute pagans.

4. Constantine passed a law turning bishops into a court of appeal. Anyone at any time could appeal to the bishops in a legal case and the bishop’s verdict was binding. He also passed several laws about slavery. Constantine permitted the beating of slaves but not unto death, he banned marriage between citizens and slaves, but also banned the break-up of slave families, and gave clergy the authority to manumit slaves.

5. The biggest religious influence on Constantine was probably the Christian theologian Lactantius and the bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. Peter Leithart calls Constantine a “Lactantian Christian.”

6. At the Council of Nicaea, Constantine was both a spectator and a participant. His main interest was church unity, as he did not want the eastern churches fragmented and fighting as happened in North Africa during the Donatist controversy.