99: Christianity in the Roman Empire JLP
Christianity in the Roman Empire went through four main phases. The dates given are rough approximations.
Short Version:
Anonymity (Christianity’s inception – 63 CE)
Christianity was well tolerated by Roman officials, who recognized that the incorporation of new people into the empire went more smoothly if they let them keep their own religions, and thus tolerated any religion that did not directly threaten the security of the Roman state.
Persecution (63-306 CE)
Christians suffered intense persecution. It began with Nero, who needed someone to blame for the burning of Rome. He chose Christians, likely because he disdained Judaism and saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism. Other Romans became bitter toward Christians them because it was believed they caused the decline of worship of traditional Roman gods. These unhappy gods were supposedly causing the many troubles the empire faced during this time.
Acceptance (306-400 CE)
Constantine became a follower and supporter of Christianity and made it legal to become Christian. It gained more and more followers. [Theodosius] made it the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Dominance (400 CE and on)
Christianity becomes thoroughly entrenched in Roman politics. Political leaders have power in the church and vice versa. The Roman Empire fractures into the Holy Roman Empire in the west and the Byzantine Empire in the east.
Long Version:
Anonymity
In the early Roman state, people thought of themselves in collective terms. They defined themselves in terms of the groups that they belonged to - family, trade/profession, state. (Christianity later helped spread a more individualistic concept of self.) To an early Roman, religion was the most powerful means by which they could secure the wellbeing of these groups. Thus they worshipped Gods that related to the household as well as those which corresponded to forces of nature which could, if not pacified, be dangerous to the safety of the state. They thought that through the maintenance and exact observance of the ancestral ritual, they could placate these gods and bring good fortune to their homes and governments.
As the Roman Empire grew, people stopped worshiping traditional Roman gods and goddesses and stopped performing traditional rites. This was due to the introduction of the worship of foreign deities, particularly those of Egypt and the east, and to the criticism of the basis of popular religion by philosophers and poets, particularly the Greeks. This trend was unsettling to the Romans, because they believed people had to practice certain rites in order to maintain the safety and integrity of the state. To remedy this, the Romans said that everyone was free to believe - or not believe - in whatever gods they chose, so long as they punctually observed the ancient prescribed ritual of worship and did nothing that interfered with the safety and supremacy of the Roman state.
To the pre-Christian Romans, it didn’t really matter who you worshipped, so long as you kept up the proper state-protecting rituals. For this reason, Christianity was tolerated when it first began. The Romans were polytheistic, anyway – what trouble could throwing one more god into the mix do? They probably saw it as just letting one more god into the big god party that was going on in the clouds over the great empire. By the time of Augustus, the growth of the empire had caused many to believe that religions of all countries had a similar basis and that their diverse gods were really manifestations of the same divine power under different names.
Persecution
Nero was first emperor to persecute Christians, likely as scapegoats for a series of fires that had swept through Rome. He also may have wanted to inspire the hatred of Jews; Christians were at that time considered a sect of Judaism. Christians were executed in scores. “Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” This was the first of what is referred to as “The Ten Great Persecutions of the Christians.” Ten emperors, from Nero to Diocletian, made attempts to rid the empire of the influence of Christianity. The persecution was on and off, not all emperors between Nero and Diocletian persecuted Christians. Some of those who did were the Antonines, Severus, Valerian, and Decius. Christians suffered the most from the final persecution – the Edict of Diocletian – which had many churches destroyed and property confiscated.
Emperors like Decius and Valerian thought they could return Rome to its former glory by destroying Christianity, which they saw as corruption. The Christian system, after all, could not be reconciled old Roman religion, the devotion to foreign (Egyptian and eastern) deities that was popular among the higher classes, or the deification of the Roman emperors. They also resented the neglect of the religious rites of the state. All calamities were attributed to the wrath of the offended gods.The citizens of the empire also became embittered toward the religion. They saw their Christian neighbors as aloof. Christians refused to throw incense on the altars of traditional Roman gods, they abstained from the sports of the amphitheater, particularly when festivals for heathen gods were held there, they refused to be soldiers, they wanted martyrdom, and they taught that the world would soon be consumed by fire and that those who did not worship the Christian god would be doomed to eternal punishment. Needless to say, many of their non-Christian neighbors became resentful.
Acceptance
After Diocletian retired to the country to raise cabbage, Constantine became emperor. This was a pivotal turning point in the fortunes of the Christians in the empire. Constantine had a religious experience at the [Battle Of Milvian Bridge] and henceforth publicly embraced the religion. The Edict of Milan issued by Constantine and Licinius gave unlimited toleration to Christianity and withdrew official recognition and protection from paganism.
Christian leaders were given many gifts. Constantine also made Sunday an official Roman holiday so that more people could attend church, made churches tax-exempt, and contributed to the Christianizing Of Pagan Holidays. However, many of the same things that helped Christianity spread subtracted from its personal significance and promoted corruption and hypocrisy. Many people were attracted to the Church because of the money and favored positions available to them from Constantine rather than from piety. The growth of the Church and its new-found public aspect also prompted the building of specialized places of worship where leaders were architecturally separated from the common attendees. This stood in sharp contrast to the earlier churches, which were small and informal. The fact that pagan religion all of the sudden did not enjoy the same support that Christianity did also upset many people.
Constantine believed that the Church and the State should be as close as possible, but there were several problems with melding Christianlity and the Roman government. One was that there was no established doctrine - each of Christians followed different doctrines. Another was that Christianity was fundamentally anti-political. Jesus had condemned worldly authority and insisted that the Christian life was a non-worldly, individualistic, non-political life. As a result, early Christian texts were anti-Roman and dismissive of human, worldly authority.
To encourage the development of a unified doctrine, Constantine convened Christian bishops at Nicea in 325. There they instantiated the basic orthodoxy of the Christian church - the Nicene Creed. The Nicene council also ratified Constantine’s power. This caused even more tension between the anti-political views of Jesus and the Christianity that was beginning to allow for human power and authority. The more worldly form Christianity ultimately won. It’s important to note that many people believe Constantine was not a true Christian, or at least never fully understood the theology of Christianity, because he retained his pagan title "Pontifex Maximus" and he expected to be venerated as a god, just as his predecessor Diocletian had.
When Constantine died he divided the empire among his three sons, who had all been raised with Christianity. Even though he had been raised Christian, Julian the Apostate worshipped the old Roman gods and believed they supported him in his claim to the empire. He tried to undo what his father had done for Christianity. He dismissed all Christians from the government and had pagan temples that Constantine had torn down rebuilt at the church’s expense. He also wrote “Against the Galileans,” which espoused his view that Christians had damaged the Roman Empire. His actions had little effect in Christianity’s growing popularity.
Dominance
Rome was under fractured, chaotic rule through the 4th century until it came under the rule of Theodosius (379-395). He declared Christianity the state religion of Rome and made all pagan religions illegal. As a result, the church grew dramatically in size and power. It became fashionable to give lavish gifts. During this time the Romans passed many edicts that seemed influenced by Christian beliefs, such as edicts that forbade or limited the exposition of infants, excessive cruelty towards slaves, adultery, and divorce
After the Visigoths took Rome in 410, the empire descended into chaos. Interestingly, even though imperial power declined after this point, the power of the church over political matters continued to increase. As a result, during the 5th century the Pope became the most powerful man in the region. Eventually, the power of what had been the Roman Empire trickled down to the Holy Roman Empire in West and Byzantine in the east. Headed by the Pope, Christianity - under the name of the Catholic Church - retained control in the Holy Roman Empire. In the east, there was a lot of bickering over the nature of Christ. This and other dissent within the Catholic Church weakened the Byzantine government’s control, thus making it easy for followers of Mohammed take control.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee~ROME/LATE.HTM
http://www.dabar.org/Religion/RED/R-Words/Redromanempire.htm
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/EastEurope/ConstantineConverts.html http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/kahare/earlyrome.html
http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html