The erroneous idea that Constantine created the Roman Catholic Church comes up again and again in my conversations with non-Catholic Christians. It seems that the main points of contension are the Council of Nicea (with Constantine supposedly presiding and determining doctrine, or so they say), the introduction of pagan practices into Christianity, and Constantine's involvement with the building of the old St. Peter's Cathedral. But usually the allegation is made without any mention of the particulars of history.
I think there are two larger issues at play here, however. The first is closed-minded anti-Catholicism. Any fact (true or manufactured) that seems to undermine Catholicism is accepted without question. The second issue is that too many non-Catholics seem to think that the early Church is amorphous and unknowable. But this doesn't have to be so. Indeed, there are hundreds and hundreds of extant works from the first few centuries of the Church. As a matter of fact, the Apostolic Fathers were contemporaries of the Apostles themselves, some even being their disciples. Perhaps they have some valuable things to say about the nature of the Church?
Let us return to the subject at hand. What was Constantine's role in the Council of Nicaea? Answer: He was mostly a facilitator. Firstly, he provided one of his summer houses to act as the host site. Secondly, he provided transportation on the Roman road system for all the bishops of the Council. But his involvement in the Council itself was minimal. "The emperor himself delivered an address in Latin, urging the restoration of peace in the Church," as the Arian heresy was ravaging the Church at the time. "Otherwise Constantine took no substantive part in the deliberations; it was an affair of the Catholic bishops." (From Kenneth D. Whitehead's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church was the Catholic Church)
Several other rhetorical questions can also refute this myth. If Constantine founded the Catholic Church, why did he move the imperial seat to Byzantium (later Constantinople, and now Istanbul) in 330? If Constantine founded the Catholic Church, why didn't he make it the official religion of the Roman Empire? (Constantine merely made it legal; Theodosius I made it the official religion in the late 4th century.) And why did Constantine wait until the end of his life to convert?
The antidote to this myth is to be found in the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. These writings come before the Council of Nicaea (and usually before the Edict of Milan by Constantine in 313 AD). These early Church Fathers speak of a Faith that is distinctly Catholic: they believed in the Real Presence, the hierarchy of the Church (deacons, priests, bishops), the Primacy of Peter, Marian devotion, infant baptism, and many other Catholic teachings. This can be explained with one simple fact: the early Church was the Catholic Church.
