| The_vagabond7 said: It's absolutely a fact that he didn't get baptized until right before he died, but at this point it seems like a semantic argument. The fact that christianity was becoming more popular doesn't mean rome converted to christianity peacefully. The christians didn't form an army and storm any palaces, but they did their fair share of murderin' in order to get Rome to become the holy roman empire. Unless somebody wants to play the "no true scottsman" card, trying to figure out just how christian Constantine and his cronies were so they can be put on the appropriate team to fill out the violence score card is pendantic. Fact of the matter is, christianity was becoming popular peacefully, but it's rise to super power was still a violent one. |
A) You do know the Holy Roman Empire was a totally different thing right?
B) It's rise to power wasn't violent though. It was only after it came to power that it was violent... and even then, it was only against other Christians to my knowledge, until much later after Constantine's death. When in the empire you were effected depended on who ruled you and when it happened. Since the Roman Empire was split in 3 on Constantines death. Constans outlawed some pagan rituals, but the other two were pretty "Free religion" as far as I know. Well outside of branch christian religions they didn't agree with. Which ended up being interesting because the eastern and western emprerors supported opposing branches.
Nobody was compelled or forced to join Christianity by Constantine. Heck, quite the opposite, he forced Christians to observe pagan holidays like the day of the sun.
