Editing Constantinian shift (section)

==The Shift==
[[File:Nicaea icon.jpg|thumb|Icon depicting [[Constantine the Great|the Emperor Constantine]] (centre) and the [[bishop]]s of the [[First Council of Nicaea]] holding the [[Nicene Creed]]]]
[[Constantine the Great]] (reigned 306–337) adopted [[Christianity]] as his system of belief after his victory at the [[Battle of Milvian Bridge]] in 312.<ref>Lactantius XLIV, 5</ref><ref>Eusebius XXVII–XXXII</ref><ref>Brown 2006, 60.</ref> The following year, 313, he issued the [[Edict of Milan]] with his eastern colleague, [[Licinius]]. The edict legalised Christianity alongside other religions in the [[Roman Empire]]. 
In 325 the [[First Council of Nicaea]] signalled consolidation of Christianity under an orthodoxy endorsed by Constantine. While this did not make other Christian groups outside the adopted definition illegal, dissenting [[Arianism|Arian bishops]] were initially exiled. But Constantine reinstated [[Arius]] just before the heresiarch died in 336 and exiled the Orthodox [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] from 335 to 337. In 380 Emperor [[Theodosius I]] made Christianity the Roman Empire's [[state religion|official religion]] (see [[State church of the Roman Empire]]). In 392 Theodosius passed legislation prohibiting all [[paganism|pagan]] cultic worship.<ref>Theodosian Code, XVI.1.2</ref>

During the 4th century, however, there was no real unity between church and state: in the course of the [[Arian controversy]], [[Arianism|Arian]] or semi-Arian emperors exiled leading Trinitarian bishops, such as [[Athanasius]] (335, 339, 356, 362, 365), [[Hilary of Poitiers]] (356), and [[Gregory of Nyssa]] (374<ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Schaff | editor-first = Philip | editor-link = Philip Schaff | title = Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers | series = Second | volume = V. Gregory of Nyssa | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E2NStO5kLqkC | access-date = 2012-12-16 | orig-year = 1893 | year = 2007 | publisher = Cosimo | isbn = 978-1-60206516-1 | page = vii | quote = 374[:] Gregory is exiled under Valens}}</ref>); just as leading Arian and [[Anomoean]] theologians such as [[Aëtius (theologian)|Aëtius]] (fl. 350) also suffered exile.

Towards the end of the century, Bishop [[Ambrose of Milan]] made the powerful Emperor [[Theodosius I]] (reigned 379–395) do penance for several months after the [[Massacre of Thessaloniki|massacre of Thessalonica]] (390) before admitting him again to the [[Eucharist]]. On the other hand, only a few years later, [[Chrysostom]], who as bishop of [[Constantinople]] criticized the excesses of the royal court, was eventually banished (403) and died (407) while traveling to his place of exile.