“Constantine was paranoid about unity,” Seth said. “He came up in a time when the Roman empire had four Caesars who fought among themselves. He spent most of his career in wars and campaigns to reunite the Roman empire—something he saw as vital for survival against the barbarians who were hammering on every gate and against internal dissent. When he finally became the undisputed emperor, he was determined to rule a united empire no matter whom he had to remove to do it.”

“But Constantine is known as the first Christian emperor,” Zoe said.

“Only on his deathbed,” Seth said. “Sol Invictus, the Sun God, was his main deity until the last hours of his life. For most of his life, Christianity was a political power tactic for Constantine, a method of governing rather than a religion.”

“Not very original.”

“No, but I think he was the first true master at shaping religion to help consolidate governmental power. He saw that this new religion wasn’t going away, and that over the previous three centuries it had been a destabilizing influence on the rule of the empire. He saw it as clearly a growing force, so instead of fighting it he co-opted it He controlled the church for his own purposes and shaped theology for the sake of political expediency. So many things that people today think are divinely inspired were actually Constantine’s political edicts enforced by the power of the sword.”

“Such as?”

Seth thought for a moment He sipped at his wine and turned toward the window to gaze at the setting sun. Finally, he turned back toward Zoe and said: “How about something that is about as fundamental to the Christian church as you can get the Trinity.”

Zoe frowned.

“There was absolutely no unanimous agreement in the Christian church that Jesus was to be worshiped on a basis equal to God. Indeed, you could find a lot of solid evidence that Jesus himself would not be happy with this.

“But back in 324 or so A.D. the issue came to a head with a bishop named Arius, the presbyter of Alexandria, who was preaching that Jesus ‘the Son’ had been created, begotten by God ‘the Father’ and, therefore, was not quite as divine. Others disagreed and there were riots in the streets all over the empire caused by this and maybe another half dozen major theological issues. This doctrine spread like wildfire and with it more riots and bloodshed.

“Riots in the streets are not something an emperor likes to see. The whole thing baffled him. He called the issue ‘truly insignificant’ and was astounded when all the feuding parties ignored his directive to stop arguing. That’s when he called the Nicean Conference. Church theologians today put a spin on the conference as a divinely inspired gathering of holy men guided to a common decision by the Holy Spirit. In reality, it was Constantine’s way of calling them all to a meeting behind the woodshed.”

As Seth spoke, sunset faded, filling up the room with deeper and deeper shadows. Neither of them moved to turn on a light.