1. To remember the History of Christianity is to remember our trajectory. From where we came to arrive where we find ourselves today.

2. This is a very rich century about the history of Christianity, when a true “turn of the key” happened. Until then, the Christians were very simple people, fishermen, workers, who gathered in catacombs, always hidden.

3. From now on, the Roman Empire became Christian, firstly, with the Edict of Intolerance, which happened in the year 313, promulgated by Constantine and later, in the year 380, by Theodosius, and from this last date, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

4. We have, then, Christianity in its form of Catholicism, that is: Roman Universal Catholic, that is, the official religion.

5. This century brings several details that need deepening, such as: the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, occurred in 325 of the Christian era (Nicaea was a city in Asia Minor, today Turkey); the second Council of Constantinople, the Barbarian invasions and Arianism, which was one of the heresies.

6. Arius, a presbyter of the city of Alexandria in North Africa caused a true schism in the Church. He proposed that God is the creator, the Word, the Logos and that Jesus is the most perfect creature created by God, to serve us as model and guide, and that Both do not mix, are not the same person. The Church, however, is based on the theory of consubstantiation: God (Father), Jesus (Son) and the Holy Spirit are a single person. Then, in the Council of Nicaea, in 325, the Arian proposal is considered as heresy and is removed.

7. Some important characters appeared in this century. Among them, possibly, the main one was Augustine of Hippo, who among the historians of the period that we already know as Patristics (the Fathers of the Church), is the one who most influenced the History of the Church and the one who has more to say about this fourth century.

8. At first, as we said, Christians were simple people, were the poor, the slaves, who had a proposal of equality, where all would be equal and had an idea of one single God and, for that, were very persecuted for three centuries. Christianity was not a religion of elite, until then. From now on, Christians passed to the condition of those who were the oppressors. Christians became, even, the religion of the Barbarian peoples.

9. Manichaeism appeared in this century. It is a doctrine that came from Persia (today Iran) and was promulgated by the philosopher called Mani, or Manichaeus. Manichaeism structures the reality of the world in two polarities: good and evil, shadow and light, giving origin to a doctrine of extremes, in which there is no middle term. Even today there are people manichaeist. Augustine of Hippo was, for a long time, a manichaeist.

10. Remembering the end of the third century, we saw that the Emperor Diocletian (a true executioner), realized that he could not have power to dominate and govern all Rome, then, he had the idea to divide the Roman Empire in two parts and the administration of the Roman Empire in four parts: Eastern Empire, that had an Augustus and a Caesar and Western Empire, with an Augustus and a Caesar, giving thus the bases so that, in the future, only the Eastern Roman Empire would remain.

11. The Roman Empire was a true “Mare Nostrum”, because around the Mediterranean Sea, everything was Roman Empire: North Africa, Asia Minor, the territories more to the East, that today are in Asia, all Europe, part of Normandy and part of the Nordic countries.

12. In the Eastern Roman Empire, he himself, Diocletian, stayed as the Augustus (divine) and below him, Galerius, the Caesar (the one who administers). In the Western Roman Empire, Maximian was the Augustus and Constantius Chlorus, the Caesar. But they did not get along, because all wanted to command. Entering the fourth century, these disputes become more and more intense.

13. Then, already in this fourth century, the son of Maximian, called Maxentius and the son of Constantius Chlorus, called Constantine, manage each one to “grab” one of the parts of the Empire and begin to duel between themselves, because both wanted to have the Empire as a whole. We can understand that in the last century, Diocletian divided the Empire in two parts and in this century, the sons of the Augusti, wanted to reunify the Empire, becoming a single force. They understood that the glory of the Empire was being split by the division. The power of Rome was centered, exactly, in having more possessions, more power and being a determinant over the life of people.

14. This battle happens in a very intense way between Maxentius and Constantine, near Rome, more precisely around the Milvian bridge river. A very curious battle, by the way. Constantine was son of Helena, who was already converted to Christianity.

15. We already had, at the end of the third century, many people with a certain power of influence, Roman citizens who had converted and become Christians. Christianity had already broken the bubble of the less favored classes and had risen and reached Roman society.

16. Helena, mother of Constantine, according to historians, was the one who going to Israel and Palestine, discovered the exact place according to traditions of the time, where would be the cross of Jesus, Mount Golgotha or Calvary. It was she who, even, started the construction of the Churches of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity, located in Bethlehem. She was canonized by the Church: Saint Helena.

17. Constantine during his life was taught by his mother in the good sense, who always insisted that he adhere to Christianity, because she said: “I have for me that this is the doctrine that will modify our steps, because this Man is our savior”. She said that they, the Romans, believed in many gods, but they were transient realities.

18. However, what leads Constantine to conversion, historians say, was that he had a dream. Other historians say that he sees a symbol in the sky. This symbol, seen in dream or in the sky, was a cross. Others still say that they were the letters: X and a P, which in Greek means: “Christos”. And the revelation that is made to him is: “Under this sign you will conquer”. He goes to his generals and tells them to remove the Roman eagle from the shields and put the symbol, the cross, and that they put an X and a P, Christos. And he, then, won the battle.

19. He wins the battle, he unified the Roman Empire and became the Augustus, the maximum emperor, became Christian. He promulgated the Edict of Tolerance on June 13 of 313, in the city of Milan. Therefore, “Edict of Milan”. This Edict did not make the Roman Empire Christian, it only initiated tolerance, from this date. Christians could no longer be persecuted, Churches could no longer be burned, Christians would not pay more taxes than Roman citizens, because their Augustus now was a Christian and had won the battle under the maximum sign of Christianity. It was peace reigning for the Christians of the time!

20. Because of this battle, of this victory of Constantine, under the Christian symbol, began, then, among Christians, a process of interpretation of what Christianity was and what was its relation with power, because the God who won the battle of Constantine was more powerful than all, they thought. Then begins to surround the Christian idea the idea of power and of the rise of Christianity to a much more elevated condition, to offer Christianity not only as an option, but as THE Religion of the Roman Empire.

21. Two comments very cited in history books: - 1) “If I cannot defeat an idea, I join it”, because, during 3 centuries Christians were killed and their number only increased. Tertullian of Carthage, one of the great names of Patristics, is the author of the phrase that entered history: “The blood of Christians is the seed that makes Christianity gush more and more in the world”, because the idea became stronger and stronger, the idea did not die.

22. 2)- Some historians ask if Constantine really converted or if he appropriated the idea to be able to unify the Empire. After he became the maximum Emperor, he did not begin to love people as his mother did, he wanted to dominate more and more, he continued to be relentless, using Christianity to dominate, to kill. His mother ended up being disappointed with her own son.

23. The religion of the oppressed became the religion of the oppressors. Christians were no longer the simplest people, because all the imperial court was becoming Christian. Then began the cults more full of clothing, the fancy clothes more full of pomp, the dogmas began to appear. Because, even becoming Christians, they continued to have their particular adorations. It was a troubled period, of much mixture of beliefs.

24. The Edict of Milan, historians say, for it to happen, received a very large influence of Helena over Constantine. It is fruit of her thought that, taking side of Christians, ended up influencing the son to sign the Edict of Tolerance. It was a very significant change within the Roman Empire, because even the symbol of Christianity, which until this century was the fish, was altered and another symbol added to it. The letters that compose the word fish, in Greek, mean: “Jesus Christ Son of God Savior”. The fish also symbolizes multiplication, abundance, remembering the sharing of the breads and fishes, as Jesus had done. With this change, besides the fish, the cross also began to be adopted as Christian symbol, because: “Under this sign you will conquer”.

25. This victory of Constantine in the battle against Maxentius, on the banks of the Milvian bridge, carrying the cross on the Roman shield, completely changed the history of Christianity, which passed from a simple doctrine to begin to be a doctrine of power.

26. We carry in us the simplicity of the first Christians, but we carry in us also the power, the strength, the pride of those romanized Christians. Our challenge today is to know all these spheres of our intimacy and migrate to a construction of more love, more fraternity, more simplicity.

27. It happened in this century, the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. Council means, the local or worldwide leaderships, such as bishops, presbyters and religious, go to a certain place to deliberate about the theses of the Church. In this Ecumenical Council (universal) of Nicaea, more than three thousand people attended, coming from all over the world. But, at the final moment, only 600 people were heard.

28. This Ecumenical Council of Nicaea is, without doubt, the one that defined the History of the Church. Several were the subjects there treated. The main thesis debated, the most striking, was that of the presbyter of Alexandria, in North Africa, called Arius, already mentioned above. His thesis, that God and Jesus were not the same person, nor even the Holy Spirit, was widely discussed. They arrived, then, to the conclusion that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same person.

29. The creed that is prayed in the Catholic Church until today, was formatted in this Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, in 325, called Nicene creed. And it is in this Council that Christianity gives the first “hammer blow”, because it was the first time that the idea that Jesus is God appeared.

30. They also discussed the beginning of the Gospel of John, present in the scrolls of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was in God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh”, that is, “tabernacled” among us, that is, made dwelling among us.

31. The discussion was if Jesus was the Word or if Jesus was after the Word. If Jesus was a contemporization of the Logos or if Jesus was a creation of the Logos. And the thesis won that, if the Logos “tabernacled” among us, lived among us, it is because God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the Logos. This thesis was of bishop Athanasius. Thesis of consubstantiation of the Holy Trinity: “I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I believe in the Holy Spirit, as being the same person. According to Athanasius, if Jesus is not God, he could not save us, he could not heal us and it would make no sense for Him to die for us.

32. The thesis of Athanasius came out victorious. Practically, two people voted in the thesis of Arius and, for this reason, the Church decreed that the three were proscribed and later killed.

33. Walace Leal Valentim Rodrigues, spiritist writer and author of the book “Esquina de Pedra”, which ends up being a recollection of that time, tells there how the history happened in this Ecumenical Council of Nicaea: “In those days, Christianity got lost, because we mixed Jesus, who is a perfect type, a Christic Spirit, but who is not God”.

34. It was also discussed the thesis of transubstantiation in the Catholic Church, which means that, when someone receives the sacrament of the eucharist, the host, the body of God is present in that eucharist, but when the Protestant reform comes this thesis does not enter.

35. Another subject discussed was the date of Easter. We know that this date is the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the Equinox. Being that in the southern hemisphere it is the autumn Equinox and in the northern hemisphere it is the spring equinox. It was, then, defined there, taking as base the day 14 of Nissan, which was full moon, the date in which Jesus had the last great supper with his disciples. If it was on Sunday that He resurrected, Easter should be on that day, after the full moon, after the autumn equinox...

36. Another question debated in this Council was about the priest not being able to marry or even have intimate relations (chastity). In truth, it only became a dogma of the Church in the Council of Lateran, already in the XII century. But, the discussions began in this century, in this Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.

37. Constantine was magnanimous! He left his Empire to his three sons and as he was turned to his own personality, his sons were called: Constantine, Constantius and Constans. The city of Byzantium, he renamed, changing the name to Constantinople, in the year 330.

38. He was very important for Christianity in this century, not only for being the unifier of the Empire, not only for the Edict of Milan, not only for the Council of Constantinople, but for maintaining during all his reign Christianity as something important for the development of Christian culture.

39. And Christianity continued from there...