Editing Constantine the Great (section)

==== Religious policy ====
{{Main|Religious policies of Constantine the Great}}
{{further|Constantinian shift|Constantine the Great and Christianity|Constantine the Great and Judaism}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix   = [[Saint]]
| name               = Constantine the Great
| resting_place      = [[Constantinople]]
| feast_day          = 21 May
| venerated_in       = {{plainlist|
*[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
<!-- Talk in talk page before adding Latin Catholicism or Roman Catholicism. -->
*[[Eastern Catholic Church]]{{efn|Constantine is not revered as a saint but as "the great" in the [[Latin Catholic Church]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04295c.htm |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |title=Constantine the Great |publisher=New Advent |access-date=9 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&pgid=14724&cid=30276&ecid=30276&crid=0 |title=St. Constantine |work=FaithND |publisher=University of Notre Dame |access-date=9 January 2022}}</ref> [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] such as the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Ukrainian Catholic Church]] may revere him as a saint.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stconstantine.org/OurParish/OurPatronSaint/index.php |url-status=dead |title=Saint Constantine the Great |publisher=Saint Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225192016/http://www.stconstantine.org:80/OurParish/OurPatronSaint/index.php |archive-date=25 February 2020}}</ref>}}
*[[Oriental Orthodoxy]]
*[[Anglican Communion]]
*[[Lutheran Church]]}}
| image              = Byzantinischer Mosaizist um 1000 002.jpg
| imagesize          = 250px
| caption            = [[Mosaic]] in the [[Hagia Sophia]], section: Maria as patron saint of Constantinople, detail: [[donor portrait]] of Emperor Constantine I with a model of the city
| titles             = Emperor and Equal to the Apostles
| major_shrine       = [[Church of the Holy Apostles]], Constantinople
}}
[[File:Constantine burning Arian books.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Constantine burning books by Arian heretics ('Heretici Arriani'), from a 9th-century manuscript now in [[Vercelli]]]]
Constantine was the first emperor to stop the persecution of Christians and to legalise Christianity, along with all other religions/cults in the Roman Empire. In February 313, he met with Licinius in Milan and developed the Edict of Milan, which stated that Christians should be allowed to follow their faith without oppression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowder |first=Diana |title=The Age of Constantine and Julian |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |year=1987 |isbn=9780064906012 |pages=28 |language=English}}</ref> This removed penalties for professing Christianity, under which [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|many had been martyred previously]], and it returned confiscated Church property. The edict protected all religions from persecution, not only Christianity, allowing anyone to worship any deity that they chose. A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, which granted Christians the right to practise their religion but did not restore any property to them.<ref>See Lactantius, ''De Mortibus Persecutorum'' 34–35.</ref> The Edict of Milan included several clauses which stated that all confiscated churches would be returned, as well as other provisions for previously persecuted Christians. Some scholars think that Helena adopted Christianity as an adult, and according to Eusebius she was converted by Constantine,{{sfn|Young|2006|p=6 and n. 24}} but other historians debate whether Constantine adopted his mother Helena's Christianity in his youth or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life.<ref>R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, ''Medieval Worlds'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 55.</ref>

[[File:Sylvester I and Constantine.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Pope Sylvester I]] and Emperor Constantine]]
Constantine possibly retained the title of ''[[pontifex maximus]]'' which emperors bore as heads of the ancient Roman religion until [[Gratian]] renounced the title.<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gratian-Roman-emperor Gratian]" Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 February 2008.</ref><ref name=livius>[https://www.livius.org/pn-po/pontifex/maximus.html Pontifex Maximus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303013139/http://www.livius.org/pn-po/pontifex/maximus.html |date=3 March 2013 }} Livius article by Jona Lendering retrieved 21 August 2011.</ref> According to Christian writers, Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian, making it clear that he owed his successes to the protection of the Christian High God alone.<ref>[[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]], ''The Rise of Christendom'' 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 60.</ref> Despite these declarations of being a Christian, he waited to be baptised on his deathbed, believing that the baptism would release him of any sins he committed in the course of carrying out his policies while emperor.{{sfn|Drake|2000|p= 395}} He supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (such as exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the long period of persecution.<ref>R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, ''Medieval Worlds'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) pp. 55–56.</ref> His most famous building projects include the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] and [[Old St. Peter's Basilica]]. In constructing the Old St. Peter's Basilica, Constantine went to great lengths to erect the basilica on top of [[Saint Peter|St. Peter]]'s resting place, so much so that it even affected the design of the basilica, including the challenge of erecting it on the hill where St. Peter rested, making its complete construction time over 30 years from the date Constantine ordered it to be built.

Constantine might not have patronised Christianity alone. A [[Arch of Constantine|triumphal arch]] was built in 315 to celebrate his victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which was decorated with images of the goddess [[Victoria (mythology)|Victoria]], and sacrifices were made to pagan gods at its dedication, including [[Apollo]], [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], and [[Hercules]]. Absent from the arch are any depictions of Christian symbolism. However, the arch was commissioned by the Senate, so the absence of Christian symbols may reflect the role of the [[Curia]] at the time as a pagan redoubt.<ref>Robin Lane Fox, ''apud'' Jonathan Bardill, '' Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age''. Cambridge University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-521-76423-0}}, p. 307, note 27.</ref>

In 321, he legislated that the ''venerable Sunday'' should be a day of rest for all citizens.<ref>''[[Codex Justinianeus]]'' 3.12.2.</ref> In 323, he issued a decree banning Christians from participating in state sacrifices.<ref>''[[Codex Theodosianus]]'' 16.2.5.</ref> After the pagan gods had disappeared from his coinage, Christian symbols appeared as Constantine's attributes, the chi rho between his hands or on his labarum,<ref>Cf. Paul Veyne, ''Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien'', 163.</ref> as well on the coinage.<ref name="ramsey">R. MacMullen, "Christianizing The Roman Empire A.D. 100–400, Yale University Press, 1984, p. 44, {{ISBN|0-300-03642-6}}</ref> The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the emperor to have great influence and authority in the early Christian councils, most notably the dispute over Arianism. Constantine disliked the risks to societal stability that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring to establish an orthodoxy.<ref>Richards, Jeffrey. ''The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476–752'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) 14–15; ''The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476–752'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) 15.</ref> His influence over the Church councils was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity; the Church's role was to determine proper worship, doctrines, and dogma.<ref>Richards, Jeffrey. ''The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476–752'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) pp. 15–16.</ref>

North African bishops struggled with Christian bishops who had been ordained by Donatus in opposition to [[Caecilianus|Caecilian]] from 313 to 316. The African bishops could not come to terms, and the Donatists asked Constantine to act as a judge in the dispute. Three regional Church councils and another trial before Constantine all ruled against Donatus and the [[Donatism]] movement in North Africa. In 317, Constantine issued an edict to confiscate Donatist church property and to send Donatist clergy into exile.<ref>Frend, W.H.C., "The Donatist Church; A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa," (1952 Oxford), pp. 156–162.</ref> More significantly, in 325 he summoned the First Council of Nicaea, most known for its dealing with Arianism and for instituting the [[Nicene Creed]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Norwich |first=John Julius |title=Byzantium |year=1996 |isbn=0394537785 |edition=First American |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |pages=54–57 |oclc=18164817}}</ref> He enforced the council's prohibition against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish [[Passover]], which marked a definite break of Christianity from the Judaic tradition. From then on, the solar [[Julian calendar]] was given precedence over the lunisolar [[Hebrew calendar]] among the Christian churches of the Roman Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/25023.htm |title=Church Fathers: Life of Constantine, Book III (Eusebius), chapter 18 |website=New Advent}}</ref>

Constantine made some new laws regarding the Jews; some of them were unfavourable towards Jews, although they were not harsher than those of his predecessors.<ref name="Goldsworthy187">Cf. Adrian Goldsworthy, ''How Rome Fell'', 187.</ref> It was made illegal for Jews to seek converts or to attack other Jews who had converted to Christianity.<ref name="Goldsworthy187" /> They were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to [[brit milah|circumcise]] their slaves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stemberger |first=Gunter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXuxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |title=Jews and Christians in the Holy Land |publisher=A&C Black |year=1999 |pages=37–38 |isbn=978-0-567-23050-8 |quote=If a Jew has bought and circumcised a Christian slave or one belonging to any other religious community, he may under no circumstances keep the circumcised person in slavery; rather, whoever suffers such a thing shall obtain the privilege of freedom.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schäfer |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdKCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA182 |title=The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |page=182 |isbn=978-1-134-40317-2 |quote=Constantine forbade the circumcision of Christian slaves, and declared any slave circumcised despite this prohibition a free man}}</ref> On the other hand, Jewish clergy were given the same exemptions as Christian clergy.<ref name="Goldsworthy187" /><ref>Cameron, 107.</ref>