Constantine 1700

Constantine 1700
Originally uploaded by Dawnriser.

York is celebrating. 1700 years ago a young Constantine was made Emperor of the Roman Empire in the city, when his father Constantius died. This procession followed a short service in York Minster. It led the way to the Museum Gardens where schoolchildren performed and re enacted scenes from Roman Life in the city in the fourth century AD.
Constantine is renowned for creating Christendom. You can read more about him here.
It was an exciting event with lots of colour. Constantine was made up to be the same shade of turquoise as the bronze sculpture of him outside the south door of the minster. The Archbishop of York was in his purple and schoolchildren paraded with multicoloured costumes and cardboard instruments. Huge gun metal grey leopards joined the procession with other religious leaders in white.
How much Constantine embraced the Christian faith is open to question. He certainly saw political advantage in recognising the growing number of Christians who until his time had been outlawed. He also upheld the cross as a ensign to lead his troops into battle. He also forced the Christian leaders of the time to holds the Council of Nicea to thrash pout what they really believed - hence the Nicean Creed. So the world can look back 1700 years and acknowledge that this young emperor would bring about significant change to the religious and political landscape of the world. But under his rule the Roman Empire suffered decline and began to lose it's grip as the dominant power in the world. Perhaps it was inevitable that a system based on tyranny and brutality would change substantially when it's leader imposed Christianity on his people.