Stuart G. Hall

Constantine and the Church

Constantine was already on his way to sainthood when Eusebius of Caesarea delivered panegyrics in his honour in 335—6. His Laudes are in the tradition of pagan panegyric, in which the virtues of the emperors were praised, especially their piety to the gods and the divine favour to them. Such had earlier been given to Constantine himself, relating him to his persecuting predecessors. But now it is his services to the one God the Creator, who inspired him with justice and wisdom to rule the Empire, to root out idolatrous error, and to set up the symbol of the Cross for mankind’s salvation. In the Life of Constantine , which must be largely or wholly from Eusebius, the whole career is surveyed in a form which combines panegyric, biography, history, and proclamation. The Emperor was, it was claimed, deeply, skilfully, and consistently Christian. He had fulfilled apocalyptic prophecy by destroying the persecuting dragon that corrupted the world, represented chiefly by Licinius. Constantine had filled the Empire with churches and Christian governors; he had pacified barbarians and brought them to the knowledge of God and the rule of law. In death he lay between monuments of Apostles, sharing the prayers of the Church to whose bosom he had finally been received in baptism. Coins depicted his ascent to heaven on a quadriga (a pagan tradition which Eusebius saw with Christian eyes), and the sons of his body continued to exercise his single, quasi-divine government of the world.