âWestern civilization certainly has Constantine to thank for lubricating the gears of Christian historyâŚ[and] modern mainstream Christians have him to thank for the fact that their religion even has a coherent theology. If one looks at the Anti-Nicene Period (that is, Christian history before the Nicene Creed of 325), one understands that itâs Constantine who starts the centralization of Christianity.â (x)
âWithout Constantine, Christianity would probably not occupy the place that it does today. Without him it is unlikely that Christianity would have emerged from the mass of conflicting, if often quite similar, belief systems coexisting in the empire into which he was born⌠. the immense impact of Christian thought upon the behaviors and thinking of the many generations who came after Constantine makes it very difficult to imagine a world without it. When he was born around AD 282, it would have been far easier to imagine a world in which Christianity had a marginal place.â (x)
âIn lists of Roman Emperors, Theodosius is far from the most notableâŚ[he] forever changed the course of Christian history not in one way, but in two. He used his power to officially enforce orthodox Christianity, but ended up placing his power under that of the church, setting a standard for more than a millennium.â (x)
Basically, 315-450 CE was a defining time for the development and establishment of Christianity as we know it today. Religious scholars agree that without the Christian progress made during this era, the church may not have survived. This was absolutely the era in which Christianity as the world presently knows it was built. Â
Meanwhile, during the 4th and 5th CenturiesâŚ
Constantine publishes the Edict of Milan, which strips Jews of many rights, including the right to live in Jerusalem (meaning Jews in Jerusalem were forced to leave their property and livelihoods by decree without compensation) (x)
The Church declares: âhaving been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men [the Jews] are necessarily blindedâŚLet us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries⌠avoiding all contact with that evil wayâŚwho, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries themâŚa people so utterly depravedâŚTherefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord⌠no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews.â (x)
Constantine confiscates the properties of converts to Judaism (x)
The Western Roman Emperor Honorius calls Judaism superstitio indigna and confiscates gold and silver collected by the synagogues for Jerusalem. (x)
Bishop Cyril forces his way into the synagogue, expels the Jews and gives their property to the mob. Later, near Antioch, Jews are accused of ritual murder during Purim. Christians confiscate the local synagogue. (x)
The monk Barsauma gathers a group of followers and for the next three years destroys synagogues throughout the province of Palestine. (x)
The East Roman Emperor Theodosius II (grandson of Theodosius I) orders all funds raised by Jews to support schools be turned over to his treasury. (x)
The Codex Theodosianus, the first imperial compilation of laws, decrees that Jews are prohibited from holding important positions involving money, including judicial and executive offices. A ban against building new synagogues is reinstated. (x)
Christianity was built on the oppression and murder of the Jewish people. Period. Â
