SWB's History of the Medieval World:Chapter 4 Response Question

4. How do you see that Constantine "had married Christianity and state politics and in doing so had changed both forever"?

By making Christianity the most encouraged religion of Rome, he inevitably united Church and State into a union that lasts to this day. Constantine, either in attempt to or not, made a new definition of what it meant to be 'Roman', now not only being defined by by your nationality, but also by your religion. Before Constantine's Christianity, Rome followed a branch of polytheistic paganism which in a way served as multiple religions. Those who were worshippers of Neptune were not necessarily worshippers of Jupiter and so on. This made Roman paganism very isolated from itself by nature. Christianity on the other hand cannot function like that. It is structured under a singular and omnipotent God, universally and wholly worshipped by Christians. Now in Constantine's Rome, the structured government functioned in the same way as Christianity. While the government may fund the Church in this case, the Church fuels the Roman government to be unified and omnipotent. 

SWB's History of the Medieval World- Chapter 1 Response Question

7. How, according to Wise-Bauer, did Constantine view Christianity? What evidence does she marshal to support this claim?

Bauer states that Constantine views Christianity as far much more than just his eternal salvation, but rather as a "new and fascinating way of understanding the world" (Bauer pg.7). It also ensured him an eternal seat as Emperor. By adopting Christianity as the national religion of the Roman Empire he could accomplish two things. He could unify his very racially and regionally diverse empire (having spread well into Persia and North Africa at this point) with an overarching moral law while, at the same time, he was able to retain and perhaps enhance the ideologies of the 'proper' Roman citizen. He also was able to elevate himself over the people by claiming authorisation from a divine being, distancing himself from deification as Augustus and Caesar had both done. The Edict of Milan, Bauer argues, demonstrates the action in front of motives in Constantine's brilliant chronological strategies.