The religious policies of Constantine the Great have been called "ambiguous and elusive." Born in 273 during the Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235–284), Constantine the Great was thirty at the time of the Great Persecution. He saw his father become Augustus of the West and then shortly die. Constantine spent his life in the military warring with much of his extended family, and converted to Christianity sometime around 40 years of age. His religious policies, formed from these experiences, comprised increasing toleration of Christianity, limited regulations against Roman polytheism with toleration, participation in resolving religious disputes such as schism with the Donatists, and the calling of councils including the Council of Nicaea concerning Arianism.Peter Brown, The Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) John Kaye characterizes the conversion of Constantine, and the Council of Nicea that Constantine called, as two of the most important things to ever happen to the Christian church.KAYE, John. Some account of the Council of Nicæa in connexion with the life of Athanasius. United Kingdom, n.p, 1853.
Historical background Politics and persecution in Constantine's early years Politics The Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235–284), was a period of heavy barbarian invasions and migrations into Roman territory. According to Peter Brown, imperial Rome's system of government was an easy–going system which governed indirectly through the regional, local elites, and was not built to survive the strain of continuous invasions and civil wars. During this period of crisis, life in a "beleaguered superpower" included bankruptcies, political fragmentation and military losses. Constantine was born during this period in AD 273 and was raised a polytheist by his polytheist parents.Jonathan Bardill, Research Fellow in Byzantine Archaeology; Bardill, Jonathan. "Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age". United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
The third century crisis had begun with the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander by his own troops in 235 which led to a 50-year long leadership crisis with at least 26 claimants to the title of emperor. By 268, the empire had split into three competing states. The crisis didn't end until Diocletian took the reins and implemented reforms in 284. He restructured the Roman government by establishing the Tetrarchy, a system with four men ruling jointly over an empire divided into two parts, East and West. Each part was headed by an Augustus who had a subordinate Caesar. Diocletian ruled as head Augustus in the East, from AD 284–305, with Maximian as Augustus in the West, AD 286–305. Diocletian established administrative capitals located closer to the empire's borders for each of the four Tetrarchs. These changes helped restore imperial power by the end of the third century.
While the Tetrarchy itself didn't last long, Jonathan Bardill says that it made some permanent changes to the empire. Government became more centralized around the imperial court as the only certain source of power and influence, and elites lost some of their wealth and status. Capital cities emerged in each region while other cities shrank. The cities were no longer as unique and different as they had been. The empire could no longer be seen as "a commonwealth of cities." Instead, what all cities had in common was ideology: a shared loyalty to the emperor and his followers.
Brown says that the empire became more intrusive into the personal lives of its subjects as it also became more committed to an ideological stance.
Persecution This led to a suppression of Christianity that was more severe than any seen before and which took place on an empire-wide scale. On 24 February, AD 303, Diocletian issued the first of a series of edicts that rescinded Christians' legal rights and demanded compliance with traditional polytheistic religious practices. Christianity had existed for over 250 years; both the Church and the empire had changed in that time. The Church was no longer composed of tiny scattered groups. According to Peter Brown, it had become a 'universal church' that functioned as a "city within a city." There was a "Christian gentry" established in Asia Minor, and a developed hierarchy within the church, of leaders who were prominent in the Roman world of their day.
Persecution began with this leadership, forcing Christian bishops to participate in sacrifice to the traditional Roman gods or die. According to Norman H. Baynes, in the second year of the persecution, after the arrival of Urbanus as governor of Palestine, the imperial edict extending the order for sacrifice to the general public was then also published.
Known to Christians as the Great Persecution, Baynes says it had two phases. The first phase began with the issue of the First Edict in 303; the second phase began with the issue of the Fourth Edict, whose date and authorship are debated. David M. Potter says these edicts were enforced more in the East than in the West.
In addition to martyrdom, the First Edict also saw churches destroyed and demanded that the written scriptures and other Christian books be surrendered. At a time when the Emperor's law was seen as the divine source of order and peace, the Church claimed to possess its own universal divine law in the Christian scriptures, so the soldiers were sent out to confiscate and burn them. This is what scholars such as Maureen A. Tilley see as the cause of the Donatist schism. Donatists believed that every book of scripture was not just pen and ink, but was the physical manifestation of the Word of God, and that handing over the scriptures to be burnt, and handing over a martyr to die, were two sides of the same coin. Those who cooperated with the soldiers were, in the Latin, traditores, which originally referred to "handing over", but came to mean: traitors. Thereafter, Donatists refused to allow traditores back into church leadership positions. The Donatists would later become a thorn in Constantine's side which lasted throughout his reign.
In 305, Diocletian decided to resign and he compelled Maximian to retire as well.Little, Charles Eugene. Cyclopedia of Classified Dates, with an Exhaustive Index ...: For the Use of Students of History .... United Kingdom, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1899. Galerius was Diocletian's son-in-law; both he and Constantius I, who was Constantine's father, had previously both been adopted by Diocletian. They were accordingly appointed Augustii of the East and West, respectively, on 1 May AD 305.Hoeber, Karl. "Valerius Maximianus Galerius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 22 Jul. 2020 <https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06341a.htm>. Very soon after Diocletian stepped down, his successors began to struggle for control of the Roman Empire.
Family that divides together Constantine and his father left Gaul and crossed into Britain to win a great battle over the Picts, but on 25 July 306, Constantine's father Constantius died in Eboracum (York). Afterwards, Constantine's father's troops proclaimed Constantine as Augustus in the West, and he agreed. However, Galerius didn't. Even though Constantine was the son of the Western Augustus Constantius, Diocletian had made a "rule" in 305 that sons should not follow their fathers in power. David Potter says stories circulating at the time said this was all part of the machinations of Galerius to prevent Constantine from becoming the senior emperor. The West at this time was still largely undeveloped. The military's support of Constantine forced Galerius as Augustus of the more developed and wealthier East, to recognize Constantine's claim, but only partially. Galerius appointed his own supporter Valerius Severus to the position of Augustus of the West, and proclaimed Constantine as Severus' subordinate Caesar.
Then, on 28 October 306, Maxentius, son of Maximian, declared himself Augustus of the West, holding Italy and living in Rome from AD 306–312.Constantine and the Christian Empire. London: Routledge, 2004. Maxentius summoned his father, Maximian, out of retirement for support. Maxentius was then declared a usurper, and Galerius ordered his co-Augustus, Severus, to dislodge Maxentius from Italy in early 307. Once Severus arrived in Italy, however, his army defected to Maxentius.Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981) Severus was captured and taken to the camp Tres Tabernae outside of Rome, where he either committed suicide, or was executed, in 307.
Galerius himself marched on Maxentius in Rome in the autumn of that year, but also failed to take the city. Constantine watched from Gaul and avoided conflict with both Maxentius and the Eastern emperors for most of this period. Constantine's holdings at this time were not much: mostly Britain, Gaul and Spain. Leithart says that, Constantine realized Galerius was an insecure foundation to build his future on, so Constantine made alliance with Maximian and Maxentius, sealing that alliance by marrying Maximian's daughter Fausta in the summer of AD 307.
In the spring of 308, Maximian attempted to depose his son, Maxentius, asking his former army to choose between father and son. They chose the son, and Maximian fled to his son-in-law Constantine.Coinage and History of the Roman Empire. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2016.Chapter 10
Galerius nephew and Caesar was Maximinus II, also known as Maximinus Daia. After Severus' death, Maximinus expected to be raised to Augustus in his place and was bitterly disappointed in 308 AD, when at the Conference of Carnuntum, Licinius was declared Augustus of the West instead. In 310 AD, a bitter and disappointed Maximinus II allowed his troops to proclaim him Augustus. That makes five men with serious claims to the same position of Augustus in the West. The empire was in full out civil war.
Two claimants to the position of Augustus died in 310: The first was Alexander of Carthage who had proclaimed himself emperor in AD 308. Maxentius sent his praetorian prefect Rufius Volusianus to deal with Alexander who was subsequently taken prisoner and executed by strangulation. The next to die was Maximian, Constantine's father-in-law. In 310, Constantine deployed his father-in-law on a mission to Arles where Maximian proceeded to announce that Constantine was dead; then he declared himself emperor. Response wasn't what he hoped, and he fled to Marseilles, but Constantine force-marched his army there, and Maximian was caught and allowed, or ordered, to commit suicide. Constantine then broke off his alliance with his brother-in-law Maxentius and joined with Licinius who was to marry Constantine's sister, Constantia.
Peter Leithart points out that Constantine spent his life in the military, often fighting other Romans, who also happened to be members of his extended family. By the time Constantine's life ended, "he was responsible for the death of his father-in-law Maximian, his brother-in-law Maxentius, his sister's husband Licinius and their son, Constantine's nephew, his wife Fausta and her and Constantine's son Crispus, and a few other relatives."
Civil War By 310, Galerius' health was failing and his power eroding. After his death in 311, the Balkan territories were quickly occupied by Licinius, while Maxentius obtained the populous and prosperous Asia Minor for himself to add to his holdings in Italy.