The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (566 page)

(
c.
288–337).
First Roman emperor to accept Christianity. On the eve of the battle of the Milvian Bridge, in 312, he saw in a dream, according to Eusebius, a cross bearing the inscription, ‘In hoc signo vinces’: ‘In this sign you will conquer’. Following his victory, he gave favoured status to the Church, but whether this was formalized (in, e.g., the Edict of Milan, 313) is disputed.

 
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Constantinople
(modern Istanbul)
.

The chief see of the E. Roman Empire from the 5th cent. By the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) the Turkish Republic is bound to protect the Greek Christians in Constantinople; but the patriarch must be a Turkish citizen.
Constantinople was the venue for three
ecumenical councils
. Constantinople I (381) marked the end of the
Arian
controversy. See also
NICENE CREED
.
Constantinople II (553) secured the condemnation of
Theodore of Mopsuestia
, and certain writings of
Theodoret
and Ibas of Edessa. The council also condemned
Origenism
.
Constantinople III (680) was convoked to settle the
Monothelite
controversy.

 
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Constitution of Madina
:

see
MAD
NA
.

 
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Consubstantial
.

Of one and the same substance, hence also being. In Christian use the word refers especially to the relationship among the persons of the
Trinity
. The Lat.
consubstantialis
is the Western counterpart of Gk.
homoousios
, the test-word of anti-
Arian
orthodoxy.

 
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Consubstantiation
.

The doctrine according to which the substances
both
of the body and blood of Christ
and
of the bread and wine coexist in the
eucharistic
elements after their consecration.

 
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(1483–1542).
Christian
cardinal
, who led those proposing reform of the Church to Pope Paul III. By 1511, he had already come to the conclusion that humans are justified by faith, not works, and this conclusion enabled him to view
Protestant
claims with sympathy. He was papal legate to the Regensburg Colloquy (1541), where Protestants and Roman Catholics sought terms on which to reunify the Church. Both sides rejected his proposal of double
justification
. He died a year later as papal governor of Bologna.

 
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