Constantine I or Constantine the Great  is widely believed as the First Christian Emperor. Traditionally, Romans followed the policy of execution against the Christians. Constantine, coming to power 300 years after the birth of Jesus, announced the policy of tolerance towards Christianity in the Edict of Milan, shortly after becoming ruler, which stopped killing and harassment of the Christians and returned confiscated Church property. It is believed that Constantine anticipated that Christianity was spreading at a fast rate and the Roman Empire would fall into a deeper conflict if it didn’t recognize it. He was also not an undisputed ruler and was threatened continuously by other nobles so he required a group of people who remained dedicated and loyal to him in the most adverse situations; he identified the Christians for this role. Romans by this time must have also realized that Christians were not the traitors as blamed by the Jews and posed no direct threat to Empire. Christians at that time followed the policy of pacifism, not participating in warfare and seeking peaceful resolution of conflicts. Constantine immediately changed the negative approach of earlier Roman Kings who believed that Abstaining from joining the Roman armies, when directed, was a denial to the authority.

Soon, Christianity replaced Traditional Roman Practices, to become the official religion and thus clergy were given high status and there were large scale conversions.The Capital city was changed to Constantinople and it became an important seat of Christian learning. Pagan symbols were replaced but wherever pagans were powerful they were not exactly removed and rather were absorbed into Christianity.

However, Constantine was not so kind for all his subjects. He led an army to kill Donatists Christians, who believed that  who so ever bowed before Romans and compromised do not deserve to be taken into the fold again. He was against them for obvious reasons.

He also called the Council of Nicaea against Arians, the followers of Arius, who don’t believe in the concept of Trinity and thus do not believe that Jesus was divine enough to be called a part of God. He is said to have threatened the priests against voting in favour of Arius. However, later he repented and invited back the Arius and was baptized by an Arian priest, his son was also an Arian. His rule also affected Jews who were banned from keeping Christian slaves. Conversions of Christians to Judaism were also prohibited and thus the propagation of Judaism was effectively stopped. Jews’ religious freedoms were curtailed to a large extent.

It is an undeniable fact that Constantine was a very important factor in propagation of Christianity as a major religion. However he had a major impact on the Christian theology also; he transformed a religion of simple God fearing people into one which had a priestly class separate from common believers. Before this Christianity was growing inspite of Roman threats, Christians were fearless and there was no difference between a priest and a common man. However, now many influential Romans in pursuit of Power became Christians. Christians earlier used to follow the policy of non violence and sought peaceful resolution of problems but now  under Constantine they started to build up as an army and persecuted even their fellow Christians, the Donatists. Author of Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, writes that Constantine while promoting Christianity brought into it many customs of the Roman Pagan religion. One of them was the theory that Jesus was the son of the God and not a common Prophet.

Constantine according to him told the priests to compile the Bible and used only those Gospels which suited him.

Yasser Iqbal Kidwai