CONSTANTINE THE GREAT

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, emperor, St. (273–337). Son of Constantius Chlorus and the latter’s concubine, Helen, Constantine was born in the present-day city of Nish, Serbia (q.v.). On his father’s death in 306 he began his quest for the throne of the Roman Empire in York, Britain. He made good on his claim for the Empire’s western half in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and for the east in 323. In the process his advocacy of Christianity became clear, first in the so-called Edict of Milan (313), which ended official persecution of Christianity and restored church properties lost to state confiscation. In a series of decisions and decrees in following years, he steadily expanded the Church’s privileges, in particular those of its clergy. His ambitious building program included the construction of church buildings throughout his domains, including the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulcher) in Jerusalem (since much altered, but still standing) and Old St. Peter’s in Rome. Constantine convoked the first of the Ecumenical Councils (q.v.) at Nicaea in 325. Five years later he dedicated his new capital, Constantinople, intended to serve as the center of a Christian Roman Empire (qq.v.). He is thus the man primarily responsible for the inauguration of Christendom in both Western and Eastern Europe, i.e., the idea and fact of a Christian society. Ten later emperors in Constantinople were to carry his name, including the last, Constantine XI Paleologus. The forebear’s own Empire lasted well over a millennium.