VATICAN CITY, APRIL 17, 2012 (Zenit.org).- «Constantine the Great. The Roots of Europe» is the title of an international academic congress that begins Wednesday at the Vatican.
The four-day event has been organized by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the battle of the Milvian Bridge and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.
Father Bernard Ardura, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, explained that the initiative is «the outcome of effective academic cooperation with important cultural institutions such as the Vatican Secret Archives, the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Italian National Research Council, the Ambrosian Library and the Sacred Heart Catholic University in Milan». It is also taking place «with the cooperation and contribution of the European Union delegation to the Holy See, the Lazio Regional Council and the Pontifical Lateran University».
This congress is the first of two, the second of which will be held in Milan in 2013 for the 1,700th anniversary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, which established freedom of religion in the Roman empire and put an end to the persecution of certain religious groups, particularly Christians. While the 2013 congress will concern itself with what is known as the «Constantinian revolution», tomorrow’s event will focus on the environment in which Constantine lived and on relations between Christians and the Roman empire prior to the year 313. Participants will «examine the relationship between religion and the State, the idea of religious freedom in the empire, and religion from the point of view of the emperor and the senate», Father Ardura said.
One key area will be the conversion and baptism of Constantine himself, and his attitude towards Christians following the battle of the Milvian Bridge, which took place on Oct. 28, 312, and led to the death of his rival Maxentius. Contemporary and later Christian historians, influenced by the narrative of Eusebius of Cesarea, saw Constantine’s victory as the result of divine intervention.
Fr. Ardura pointed out that «from a purely strategic-military viewpoint the battle was not very important, but it soon became the founding symbol of the new world which came into being when Constantine found Christianity. Indeed, … the era of imperial persecution against Christians was about to come to an end, giving way to the evangelisation of the entire empire and moulding the profile of western Europe and the Balkans; a Europe which gave rise to the values of human dignity, distinction and cooperation between religion and the State, and freedom of conscience, religion and worship. Of course these things would need many centuries to come to maturity, but they all existed ‘in nuce’ in the ‘Constantinian revolution’ and therefore in the battle of the Milvian Bridge».
