Emperor Constantine (c288-336 CE) was a pivotal figure in establishing the Christian church as more than a group of warring factions. To succeed his father as emperor, Constantine had to defeat his rival Maxentius. On the eve of battle he saw a cross in the sky accompanied by the inscription “By this symbol you will conquer.” The next day he ordered his soldiers to paint a cross on their shields... and his army won the day. In gratitude, he transferred his allegience to Christianity. He decreed that all religions were to be allowed within the Roman empire, though Christian churches would benefit, then as now, from tax concessions. He ended the Roman empire’s persecution of Christians and set out to reconcile the disputes among the Christian sects.
Constantine was proclaimed emperor in York, in the year 306 CE, which is why this statue was commissioned in 1998 and erected outside the minster. No one (to my knowledge) has questioned the rationale behind the memorialisation of Constantine in bronze, even though he was a brutal sociopath who murdered his eldest son, decapitated his brother-in-law and killed his wife by boiling her alive (and that was after he had converted from worshipping the sun god to embracing Christianity!)…
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