Theopedia

Constantine

Overview

Constantine ruled as the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, from AD 312 until his death in 337.1 He is remembered in church history chiefly for two acts: the Edict of Milan (313), which ended the empire’s persecution of Christians in the West, and his summoning of the First Council of Nicaea (325), the church’s first ecumenical council, called to settle the controversy the Alexandrian presbyter Arius had raised over the relationship between the Father and the Son.23 Constantine wrote no theology of his own. What he did instead was convene and fund the council that settled the dispute, setting a pattern later ecumenical councils would follow.4

Life and Ministry

By AD 313, having secured control of the western part of the empire, Constantine issued an edict of religious toleration known as the Edict of Milan.2 The edict ended the Roman government’s persecution of Christians in the West, “making peace, so to speak, between the state and the church.”5

Roughly twelve years later, Constantine had also gained control of the Greek-speaking East and was troubled to discover its bishops and churches divided over the teaching of Arius, who held that the Son was a created being rather than eternally begotten of the Father. Wanting to make peace between the churches in the East as he had made peace between church and state in the West, Constantine summoned a universal council of bishops to meet at Nicaea, after informal efforts at reconciliation had failed.6 Nicaea’s location, near several of Constantine’s own residences, let him take part in the council in person; the state paid the traveling costs of the bishops who attended, a number later estimated at between 220 and more than 300.73

A fifth-century account by the church historian Theodoret records the substance of Constantine’s opening address to the assembled bishops:

The excellent emperor … exhorted the bishops to unanimity and agreement; he reminded them of the cruelty of the late emperors, and of the … peace which God had granted them during his reign and by his efforts… . “For the Gospels,” he said, “the apostolic writings, and the oracles of the ancient prophets, clearly teach us what we ought to believe about the divine nature. Let us, then, put aside all contentious arguments and seek the solution for the questions under discussion in the divinely inspired word.”8

The bishops’ own conduct at the council did not always match that appeal. John Calvin records that, amid the dispute with Arius, some of the bishops opposed to him turned “the pen, which should have been employed against Arius” against one another instead, trading “foul accusations” until, in Calvin’s account, “the Emperor Constantine interfered, and declaring that the investigation of their lives was a matter above his cognisance, repressed their intemperance by flattery rather than censure.”9

Historical Significance

Constantine’s own conversion did not settle the controversy his council was meant to end. Herman Bavinck notes that the Arian objection to the Son’s full deity “had to be taken seriously; not only did it gain many adherents especially after the conversion of Constantine, but they could and did appeal to the many passages in Scripture” that seemed to support it.10 The debate Nicaea addressed continued for decades after the council closed.

The ancient and medieval church went on resolving doctrinal controversy the same way Nicaea had: through a council convened, funded, and personally attended by the reigning emperor rather than by any bishop’s own authority. Herman Bavinck describes the councils of this era generally as “imperial synods, convened and officially or unofficially guided and validated by the emperor,” a pattern that continued in the West until the medieval papacy began convening ecumenical councils of its own.4

For the Reformed tradition, Nicaea’s own history became an argument against conciliar infallibility rather than for it. Calvin pointed to the discord among the bishops at the council Constantine convened as evidence that even the church’s “ancient and purer councils,” though deserving “the utmost veneration,” were not for that reason error-proof: “though councils, otherwise pious and holy, were governed by the Holy Spirit, he yet allowed them to share the lot of humanity, lest we should confide too much in men.”11

Related Doctrines

Constantine’s summoning of the First Council of Nicaea produced the Nicene Creed and is treated at length in First Council of Nicaea. The controversy the council addressed is Arianism, taught by Arius and opposed there by Athanasius. The council’s status as the first of the ecumenical councils and the question of councils’ own authority are treated further under conciliarism.

References

  1. Ronald E. Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine: Introducing the Essentials of the Ancient Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 69. ↩

  2. Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine, 73. ↩ ↩2

  3. Charles Hodge, “Chapter VI. The Trinity,” in Systematic Theology, Volume I (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1871), 453. ↩ ↩2

  4. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 21, “The Church as a Spiritual Reality.” ↩ ↩2

  5. Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine, 73. ↩

  6. Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine, 73-74. ↩

  7. Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine, 74. ↩

  8. Theodoret, The Ecclesiastical History 1.6 (NPNF, 2nd ser., vol. 3, 92-93), quoted in Heine, Classical Christian Doctrine, 72. ↩

  9. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845-1846), book 4, chap. 9, sec. 10. ↩

  10. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, chap. 9, “The Triune God and His Counsel.” ↩

  11. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 4, chap. 9, sec. 10. ↩