Constantinianism
Since its birth, Christianity had been outlawed and persecuted. No fewer than ten waves of severe persecution (the last of which was by Emperor Diocletian) had been leveled against the early (Ante-Nicene) Church between a.d. 64 and 313. There was clearly no church-state confusion; but that would all change in a.d. 313. Constantine the Great, a man who demonstrated exceptional military talent under Diocletian, would finally conquer Maxentius at the Milvian bridge to claim Rome. It was said that Constantine witnessed the supernatural strength of the Christian faith and that before the battle of Milvian, he had appealed to the Christian God for help and prepared a standard in the form of the cross for his army. He claims to have had a vision with the cross and an inscription, in hoc signo vinces (“by this sign you will conquer”). Well, he did conquer, and the Roman senate declared him Caesar Augustus and Pontifex Maximus on October 27, 312. In view of his victory, Constantine published the Edict of Milan in January 313, which decreed religious toleration of Christianity and even issued the restoration of some property belonging to Christians that was confiscated during Diocletian’s reign.
Constantine thrust the Church into public life. For the first time in history, Christianity was favored and pampered—and that by the strongest imperial force on earth. Christianity soon became the primary religion of the Roman Empire, occupying the main seat of honor. Survival was no longer the Christian’s preoccupation. Now, theology could be comfortably discussed and debated much like philosophy had. With interest in political and religious unity, Constantine called for the first great ecumenical council, the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325. He presided over the council, openly declaring, “I am the bishop of bishops.” Tertullian’s (a.d. 160–230) words now had greater meaning, “Quid est imperatori cum ecclesia?” (“What does the emperor have to do with the church?”). Many envisioned the dawn of a new age and began associating and interpreting the affairs of the Roman Empire as belonging to the Kingdom of God on earth. It was the beginning of what has been called the Imperial Church. Constantine abolished crucifixion, funded buildings for Christian use, including the building of churches, and declared Sunday a public holiday. He was marrying Church and State, which would effectively result in great confusion of their respective roles and responsibilities.
Many pagan worshipers now flocked to become part of the Roman Christian movement. Newborns were considered citizens of both the Church and State. So-called “conversion” had been equated to citizenship, with no regard to the gospel or personal faith. The state of man before God was being reduced to the mechanics of religious ritual, much like the Greco-Roman paganism that the State had long practiced. The drift away from the light of the gospel was rapidly occurring. As a result, many unregenerate and unrepentant people with no real interest in Christ or understanding of the gospel, and with manifest immoralities and impurities in their lives, were members of the so-called “church.” Some left the Church in pursuit of the purity of its earlier days. This gave rise to monasticism and pockets of independent Christian sects, like the Donatists.
Addressing this matter, one Church historian writes, “A compromise arose; the Empire accepted Christianity and the Church accepted Roman law and the Roman State. A small part of the Church retired into the desert and there began to continue its former work.”[1] These Christians were considered to be heretics by the Roman Church, labeled as rebels because they were against Constantinianism.
The Word "Catholic"
The word “catholic” is the compound of two Greek words, kata (meaning “according to”) and holos (meaning “the whole”). The use of the term in Constantinianism alluded to allegiance to the state-sanctioned order of the Church (also called sacralism, meaning a societal system of common religious loyalty, whose commitment involves sacred rites or symbols). The idea conveyed was a Christianity that was according to “the whole” or officially accepted sanction. Thus Rome, under Theodosius, would order the following in a.d. 380:
It is our will that all people we rule shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the apostle transmitted to the Romans. We shall believe in the single deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under the concepts of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity. We command that those persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name of “Catholic Christians.” The rest, however, whom we adjudge to be demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of our own initiative, which we shall assume in accordance with divine judgment.[2]
Already Church-State authority was being mingled and the Church in Rome was asserting determinative authority over all who would claim to be Christian. They were also assuming the authority of capital punishment, which was never given by Christ to the Church—that was left to the state (Romans 13:1-7).
The changes and impositions that Constantine made on the Church substantially contributed to her drift away from the light of the gospel and into darkness.
