Emperor Constantine (306–337)
• Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.
• Constantinople became the centre of Christianity (the “Second Rome”).
• Ecumenical councils were convened to lay down rules for orthodoxy
and to formulate dogmas about God and Christ:
– Nicaea (325),
– Constantinople (381),
– Ephesus (433/449),
– Chalcedon (451).
• The Eastern Church centred in Constantinople and the Western Church
centred in Rome became increasingly alienated.
• Controversies about questions of faith and discipline and about primacy
led to the separation (schism) between the Eastern and Western Churches
in 1054.
