Constantine (ca. 280-337)
“In Hoc Signo Vinces” ["Conquer by this" or "In this (sign) you will win."] (vision, 312)
Constantine's vision of a cross.
In 312, the Roman Empire is up for grabs. Its previous emperor, Diocletian, divided the realm between two senior and two junior emperors, but the complex arrangement has collapsed. The successors are at each others’ throats. Young general Constantine, son of Constantius, one of Doicletian’s co-emperors, has military successes under his belt, but now he faces a formidable veteran with a larger army and a better strategic position. What shall he do?
Christ to Constantine; The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church. The first three centuries were decisive for Christianity. The existence of the church was threatened by powerful opponents. These programs bring you close to the early believers.
Constantine realizes that he needs help from a power greater than himself. But who or what? He has his doubts about the traditional Roman gods. So he prays earnestly that the true God, whoever that may be, will “reveal to him who He is, and stretch forth His right hand to help him.”
He does not know it yet, but that prayer will change the course of Christian history as well as of western civilization. Later he will tell his friend Bishop Eusebius the incredible story of that hour. When Eusebius reports it in his history, he admits it is hard to believe.
So what does happen that is so hard to believe? Constantine suddenly sees a bright cross of light emblazoned against the noonday sky and upon it the inscription: “In hoc signo vinces”— Conquer by this.
It is the assurance Constantine needs. He accepts this as the answer to his prayer and orders his soldiers to inscribe crosses on their shields. Encouraged by the token from heaven, he hurls his troops against his rival Maxentius at Rome’s Milvian Bridge. Surprisingly, he is victorious. Maxentius is among those who drown in the Tiber.
Afterward Constantine does not forget to Whom he owes his victory. He issues orders that the church is to be tolerated. For close to 250 years, since A.D. 64, when Nero initiated violence against it, the church has been a persecuted minority in Roman lands. Only a few years earlier, between 303 and 311, it suffered through Diocletian’s savage “Great Persecution.”
Although he does not make Christianity the official religion of the empire, Constantine bestows favor on it, builds places of worship for Christians, and presides over the first general church council. He will become the first emperor to embrace Christianity and will be baptized on his death bed.
Writing Constantine’s biography, Eusebius will describe him as God’s gift to a suffering church.
—Dan Graves
Dig a Little Deeper
- Aland, Kurt. Saints and Sinners; Men and Ideas in the Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970.
- Barnes, Timothy David. Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981.
- “Constantine the Great and His Sons.” New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1954.
- Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944.
- Eusebius Pamphilus. Church History. The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol. I Eusebius Pamphilus: Church History; Life of Constantine; Oration in Praise of Constantine, edited by Philip Schaff. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s, reprinted from the 1891 edition.
- Herbermann, Charles G. and Georg Grupp. “Constantine the Great.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
