Constantine the Great
Suddenly, this cryptic and secretive religion, with its instinctive fondness for codes and clues, became the official religion of the Roman Empire. And modesty was no longer an option. Constantine would bring Christianity into the light of general acceptance.
Constantine the Great – Roman Emperor, mighty warrior and defender of the faith. Constantine’s mother, St Helena, was a Christian and he probably inherited the faith from her. In 313 A.D., Constantine’s famous edict of Milan made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. And from then on, its power grew and grew… and grew.
Constantine was a builder by instinct. Look at this magnificent triumphal arch he plonked in front of the Coliseum. But his greatest achievement as a builder was the unexpected intervention of the Christian Church.
The Emperor’s Adoption of Christianity
Until Constantine, Christian churches were small and makeshift, often hidden away, but when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Emperor, everything changed.
Suddenly, all the building resources of the mightiest empire the world has seen began to be lavished on Christian architecture. And the religion which hitherto had made do with wonky house churches found itself having to invent a grand new style of worship.
These huge Christian basilicas that Constantine began building were another Christian achievement for which there was no precedent. The little house churches were useless as an example for these giant halls of worship. This was a completely new kind of architecture. This is Santa Sabina in Rome, the best preserved of the first Christian basilicas. It’s a new type of religious space. No one in any religion had worshipped like this before.
Pagan temples worked very differently from a Christian church. Pagan temples were spaces for worshipping outdoors. In a pagan temple, the congregation stayed outside. Only the priests of the cult could enter the holy sanctuary in which the sacred idol was kept.
Christian churches were the opposite. A Christian church was a huge assembly Hall with a roof where people could worship indoors. And the style of worship was different, too. Nowadays, churches have these neat rows of pews where everybody sits quietly and piously. But in the first Christian churches, there were no pews.
The Basilica of Santa Sabina
In the beginning, Christian churches were huge open spaces in which an ecstatic Christian crowd would heave and circulate. This was a space for moving and chanting and talking.
At the start of the ceremony, the priests would enter in a magnificent procession that went all the way up to the front.
You see them illustrated sometimes, high up on Christian walls. An ornate and stately priesthood progressing through these new naves in a magnificent wave of finery and colour.
So these were spaces full of constant movement and chaotic crowding. And the only precedent for such a building was a useful Roman construction called a basilica.
Basilicas with public meeting halls built to house big crowds. There was nothing religious about them. Every sizeable Roman settlement had a basilica. Roman basilicas were entered from the side, somewhere about here. But when the Christians took over the shape… they swivelled it around and put the entrance over here. So the entire building… pointed that way.
One of the most common uses of a Roman basilica was as a law court. The populace would mill about down here while the magistrate would sit up at the end, raised on a magisterial throne, sitting in a special rounded apse that signalled his importance.
The Christians took over the magistrates apse as well. It’s where they put their sacrificial altar, and above it, a great apse mosaic, the climactic moment of this magnificent religious journey.
But if you’re looking up at this glorious apse mosaic and you’re thinking, “Hmm, there was Jesus with a big beard. What happened to the curly-haired the boy?” Well, he just wasn’t grand enough for Constantine’s new basilicas.
So the early Christians wanted a God they could look up to, a God who was a match for all the other gods. And when the time came for a more imposing Jesus to emerge, Jesus the adult… the Christians turned once again to that reliable source of raw materials that lay all around them. The art of the pagans.
External Links
Constantine the Great – Wikipedia Page
