Noah Blough
Mrs. Hattmaker
Latin 3, Period 6
2/4/2011
Constantine's Conversion
In the early years of Christianity, there were many ways a man of power might be converted. Some include promises to the Christian god to convert is they save a life or converting because missions convinced the leaders that their ways were blasphemous. However one of the most usual way of conversion was a battlefield conversion. The most significantly important battlefield conversion was that of Constantine, who then started to convert the Roman Empire.
The battle was fought between Constantine and Maxentian over who would take up the crown because Diocletian died without any clear successor. The battle was fought at Mirvian Brige because Maxentian choose to face Constantine at the bridge, instead of having to withstand a lengthy siege in Rome. On the 27th of October, before the battle was fought, Constantine was about to face Maxentian's force of 120,00, men when Constantine only had 100,000 men. Though his chances seemed some what grim Constantine prayed for a miracle and got one.
The night before the battle, Constantine was convinced he needed other worldly help to bring down the tyrant, whose army waited on the other side of the bridge. He was sure that his rival had deployed use of several magical enchantments to defeat him. He could gone with the Old Roman gods such as Zesus and Mars to grant him victory, however it was remember that in recent year calls to the Roman gods have been unheard and sacrifices never received. Constantine needed a new god. He decided to honor the one god of the universe, feeling it would only be by divine intervention that he would win the trial of arms and not by his soldiers lives. After seeing a vision of a cross with the words “you shall conquer underneath”, Constantine went to bed. In a dream he saw god and god said to him he should tell his soldiers to paint their shields with the Chi-Rho and if they do so, they will win the battle. The next morning, Constantine awoke and found a spear; he ordered the spear to be covered with gold and jewels, then he added a cross bar, which made the sign of the cross. Then god appeared to him again and told him that Jesus was his real incarnation and that Constantine should worship Jesus and him to be victorious this day. After this last vision, the horns of battle roared and hours later, Constantine stood as the conquering hero and Emperor of Rome.
Constantine's conversion was tremendously important to world's future. Without Constantine's conversion then there would not have been monks to convert Clovis or the Saxons. Constantine was also very lenient towards other religions unlike his successors, who persecuted Roman Paganism to the point where it was reminiscent of the persecution of the Christians.
Sources
Battle by R G Grant
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