Emperor Constantine ca A. Constantine also played a role in validating the Bible. Wanting Christendom to rally around the sacred texts, he led the Council of Nicaea to begin the process of formal acceptance, or canonization, of scripture.
Jewish Christians continued to observe Shabbat but met together at the end of the day, on a Saturday evening. According to the Bible, breaking the Sabbath or not observing the day of the Lord was an offence punishable by death Exodus Ch. To many Christians, observing the Sabbath has a two-fold meaning, comprising not working on a Sunday and attending Church.
Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Death seems an overly serious consequence for doing a load of laundry. God was serious about the Sabbath. The answer to your question is simple, because scripture tells us. There was a backlash against this in the early modern era, when Constantine was depicted as a vicious, backstabbing political opportunist who slaughtered allies and family alike in a ruthless struggle for power. When he was 21 years old, his father Constantius, a successful administrator and general, was made Caesar in the Tetrarchy of Diocletian.
In AD , Constantius became co-emperor with a man called Galerius. Constantine went on to legitimise his standing in the eyes of his army by defeating a Frankish invasion of Gaul. The Frankish leaders were captured and, in an unprecedented display of savagery, their two kings were thrown to the beasts in the arena. The coup failed and Maximian committed suicide.
By AD , Constantine was in control of the west and a new emperor called Licinius ruled the east. In the meantime, Maxentius had seized control of Italy. While his advisers — and even his soothsayers — felt that Maxentius was too strongly entrenched, Constantine marched against him anyway. Maxentius had the larger army and came out of Rome to challenge Constantine at the Milvian bridge. In this system there were to be two senior emperors — Augusti — who commanded the eastern and western parts of the empire.
Each Augustus had an understudy called a Caesar, who replaced him when he died or retired. Here, for the first time, the army of Constantine carried the labarum, a banner inscribed with the superimposed Greek letters X chi and P rho.
According to later texts, the Saviour himself told Constantine in a dream to construct this banner and to place the chi-rho emblem on the shields of his soldiers. Either divine intervention or bad generalship by Maxentius gave a quick victory to Constantine. However, that monument was commissioned by the resolutely pagan senate — and is constructed mostly of materials recycled from the reigns of Hadrian and Trajan.
Supreme in the west, Constantine turned his malevolent attention upon his co-emperor in the east. The two emperors had previously co-operated amiably. That said, Constantine was now a promoter of Christianity he had earlier been a worshipper of Sol, the Unconquered Sun.
As relations between the two emperors deteriorated, Licinius allegedly began to discriminate against Christians. This was either deliberate provocation, or largely fake news propagated by Constantine to legitimise his aggression in the civil war, which began in AD Both sides considered the war a struggle between the old pagan values and upsurgent Christianity.
In battle after battle, though often outnumbered, the Christians carried their sacred labarum to victory. Eventually Licinius surrendered on condition that his life be spared. Constantine agreed, but once Licinius had become a private citizen, Constantine had him arrested and executed. Constantine was now free to shape the empire however he wanted. Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives.
Alexander the Great served as king of Macedonia from to B. During his time of leadership, he united Greece, reestablished the Corinthian League and conquered the Persian Empire. By winning wars and expanding territories, he established Prussia as a strong military power. Emperor Haile Selassie I worked to modernize Ethiopia for several decades before famine and political opposition forced him from office in Charles I was a king of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose conflicts with parliament and his subjects led to civil war and his execution.
Kamehameha the Great was the Hawaiian conqueror and king who united the Hawaiian Islands and founded the Kamehameha dynasty. Elizabeth I was a long-ruling queen of England, governing with relative stability and prosperity for 44 years.
The Elizabethan era is named for her. Akbar the Great, Muslim emperor of India, established a sprawling kingdom through military conquests but is known for his policy of religious tolerance.
Pei was one of the most renowned architects of the 20th and early 21st centuries, known for signature projects such as the Louvre Pyramid and the National Gallery of Art's East Wing. Constantine I was a Roman emperor who ruled early in the 4th century. He was the first Christian emperor and saw the empire begin to become a Christian state.
His decision was not unusual in a day when many Christians believed one could not be forgiven after baptism. Since the sins of worldly men, especially those with public duties, were considered incompatible with Christian virtue, some church leaders delayed baptizing such men until just before death. He gave his sons an orthodox Christian education, and his relationship with his mother was generally happy, but he continued to act as a typical Roman emperor.
He ordered the execution of his eldest son, his second wife, and his favorite sister's husband. No one seems to be able to explain fully his reasons. While many of his actions cannot be defended, he did bid farewell to the old Roman gods and make the cross an emblem of Victory in the world. Sections Home. Bible Coronavirus Prayer. Subscribe Member Benefits Give a Gift.
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