The Real Reason Constantine Called the Council of Nicaea

Comments · 141

• MI

  @mickyochoaify · 1 month ago

  A video on how Christianity arose from a minor Jewish sect to a religion big enough to get Constantine’s attention in the first place would be interesting.

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• XO

  @xornxenophon3652 · 4 weeks ago (edited)

  Is it not deeply ironic how people keep arguing about inane details of religious theory while at the same time stopping to care about the core-message of the religion?

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• VI

  @vincentkosik403 · 3 weeks ago

  This is an outstanding presentation on this subject.

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• ST

  @stanleysheppard8464 · 2 weeks ago

  I started watching the video, wrote a detailed comment assuming you missed key parts of the story, then finished watching the video and deleted my earlier comment. Nothing was missed; the accents were in the right places, the imagery is stunning, and it is clearly AI-generated but very tasteful and precise. I call your graphic style epic cinematic. It is a set ready to create a movie! You are setting a very high bar for how history videos on YouTube, or anywhere, should be. Liked, subscribed, and hyped!

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• MA

  @MathumaTao · 4 weeks ago (edited)

  I am an historian and a legal professor. Although my specialty is not church history I have had an abiding interest in the subject. I have no reason to doubt the information here, yet much of it is news to me. What is especially noteworthy in your presentation is that you have a theory of History, which is stunningly absent in most histories.

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• LA

  @larysakorzun3415 · 4 weeks ago

  Very well narrated!

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• SI

  @si.risarisa · 12 days ago

  Interesting. This is very honest. Sometimes we forget read between the lines, what motivates someone to do something, we only focused on the facts.

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• RO

  @ronniewilliams9884 · 3 weeks ago

  Wow! for a non religious person this is so interesting and helps to explain a lot

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• MJ

  @mjfbb22 · 4 weeks ago

  Excellent.  One of your best

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• SI

  @sigridchavez2583 · 3 weeks ago

  An excellent presentation that has given me much food for thought!😊

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• EA

  @eah8185 · 4 weeks ago

  The seeds of Constantine&apos;s Conundrum were sown just shy of 100 years prior to the Council of Nicea . . . which, like all political upheavals in much of history, had economics at its roots. &nbsp;Two days ago, I ran across this trivia question: &nbsp;Which Roman emperor launched a major reform of the silver coinage in 215 CE, introducing the Antoninianus as a new denomination?<br><br>The answer to the question is Emperor Caracalla. &nbsp;OK, learning that this “reform” actually was a massive devaluation of the currency and me having been, in part, an economist in my career role . . . and wondering the connection, if any, to a very significant event in world history occurring roughly a century after Caracalla started this devaluation death spiral in the 200’s . . . I had to pursue a little more research. &nbsp;Please bear with me: <br>• The Antoninianus was fiat currency . . . it’s official value was by state decree at a time when the Empire&apos;s decline was beginning - if you will, the &quot;full faith &amp; credit&quot; of Rome wasn&apos;t what it once was in an era where intrinsic value (not fiat value) remained important in a far-flung realm of the then-known world where goods &amp; information traveled largely at the speed of horses &amp; wagons. &nbsp;Caracalla proclaimed the Antoninanus&apos; value to be double the value of a Denarius even tho the Antoninianus had half the amount of silver of a Denarius (a Denarius was the going wage for a day laborer, unskilled worker or foot soldier of the day) [NOTE: &nbsp;The Antoninianus was a copper-clad coin . . . sound familiar? &nbsp;Think back to 1965 when US quarters &amp; dimes (that had been 90% silver) were changed to 75% copper and 25% nickel bonded to a pure copper core. &nbsp;But I digress, not attempting to draw any parallels between Rome of the 200&apos;s and 21st century US.] <br>• This devaluation of currency caused significant inflation - merchants hoarded the pure-silver denarius when they received them, and demanded more Antoninianus for similar quantities of goods/services. &nbsp; <br>• For example, a common measure of economic value in that day was an Artaba, roughly 26 kilos or ~55lbs of Egyptian wheat . . . the price soared 15,000% in the 200’s as successive Emperors reduced the amount of silver in the Antoninianus even further <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o 215 CE (Caracalla): ~50% silver. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o 250 CE (Decius): ~40% silver. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o 260 CE (Gallienus): ~5% silver. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o 270 CE (Claudius Gothicus): &lt;2% silver. <br>• As if this devaluation of the currency wasn’t problematic enough in commerce, it became so worthless that even Roman tax collectors – the state itself – stopped accepting its own copper coins for taxes, demanding payment in actual goods, grain, or pure gold instead. &nbsp;As this complete loss of confidence in the currency spread parts of the empire stopped using coins entirely and reverted to a primitive barter economy. <br>• Diocletian in the late 200’s &amp; early 300’s (whose summer palace is open to visitors to this day in Split, Croatia) managed to stem the political crisis that resulted from the economic crisis, but his effort to stifle the economic collapse with the Argenteus (a high-quality coin made of 95% pure silver) just led people immediately to hoard that coin instead of spending them. &nbsp; <br>• Diocletian responded with price controls – setting a strict price ceiling on over 1,000 goods &amp; services included consumer staples like beef, grain &amp; clothing. &nbsp;These ceilings were far lower than actual costs of producing &amp; shipping the goods leading to shortages . . . and black markets, an underground economy flourished even under penalty of death. <br>• And then what happened. &nbsp;Diocletian’s rule was but the culmination of decades of the third century’s (200’s) collapse of the Roman currency, runaway inflation, plagues, and incessant civil wars. &nbsp;This unrest broke the public&apos;s trust in traditional pagan institutions, creating a fertile environment for Christianity to transform from a small minority into a dominant movement. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o Broken Trust in Pagan Institutions <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Underfunded Temples: Traditional Roman religion relied on wealthy elites to fund civic sacrifices, festivals, and temple maintenance. The economic collapse and crushing tax burdens wiped out the urban middle and upper classes. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Broken Promises: Elites could no longer afford to maintain the pagan civic structures, and the gods themselves seemed to have abandoned Rome to hyperinflation and barbarian invasions. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Loss of Spiritual Authority: Because the state was failing, the state-sponsored gods lost their authority, forcing citizens to look outside the traditional system for meaning and stability. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o The Contrast of the Early Christian Church <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Unmatched Charity: While the Roman state provided no welfare during the economic depression, Christian communities operated a highly organized, empire-wide network of charity. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Crisis Support: They pooled resources to feed the poor, care for the sick during devastating plagues, and bury the dead without a fee. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Tangible Security: In an era of total economic insecurity, converting to Christianity offered literal, physical survival, drawing millions of desperate citizens to the church. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o Rome’s Answer – The Great Persecutions <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  The Scapegoat Strategy: Desperate to restore order, late 3rd-century emperors like Decius, Valerian, and ultimately Diocletian blamed Christians for the empire&apos;s economic and military disasters, claiming the old gods were angry. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  The Backfire: They launched brutal, systematic persecutions. However, because the church had grown so large and integrated into society during the crisis, the public execution of peaceful neighbors horrified ordinary pagans. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;  Strengthened Resolve: Instead of destroying the faith, the persecutions exposed the moral bankruptcy and desperation of the Roman state, making Christian martyrs look like heroes. <br>• Enter Constantine - the Pragmatic Pivot <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o A Fractured Empire: By the time Constantine fought his way to power in the early 300s, the Roman populace was spiritually and socially fractured. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o The Church as a Unifier: Constantine realized that Diocletian’s brute-force methods could not hold the broken empire together. He recognized that the Christian Church was the only institution to emerge from the 200s with its organization, finances, and public trust fully intact. <br> &nbsp; &nbsp;o The Legalization: Constantine did not just have a religious awakening; he made a brilliant political calculation. By legalizing Christianity via the Edict of Milan (313 CE), he adopted the most resilient, unified, and economically stable network in the Mediterranean to rebuild the Roman state. <br> <br>And, as Paul Harvey used to say, “now you know, the rest of the story.”

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• LA

  @lawrencecisneros4127 · 2 weeks ago

  Great video

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