The Development of the Catholic Church

6.3 | The Development of Political Christianity

Diocletian on Roman Politics d.311 AD

“If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn't dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

As a farmer, he can make things great, as an emperor, he cannot fix corruption

Rome Becomes Christian

His desire to mold Christian religion and state control

Council of Nicaea 325 AD – presided over the whole thing What is it to be Christian – we now

know We also know who is NOT Christian

Theodosius the Great Makes Christianity official religion

of the Empire 385 AD Passes the Code of Theodosius…

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.  We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

It Begins

395 – Pagan holidays were outlawed 395 – All people are prohibited from entering pagan temples and from

performing pagan sacrifice 396 – Privileges of pagan priests were revoked 396 – Pagan temples in the country were to be destroyed (without riot)

because they were harder for (Christian) authorities to monitor St. Augustine in Carthage (now rebuilt) supported the destruction of all

symbols of paganism Christians could find “for that all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!” – riots ensue, killing dozens of pagans

407 – Western Roman Empire – all images of paganism should be torn down and temples demolished (not their money though, that goes to the Christian state to be dispersed among the Christian elite… the meek inherit the Earth?)

It Gets Bad

408 – All statues and altars in pagan temples must be removed, and the income of those buildings must go to the (Christian) government and the Church – this law was executed by Christian bishops

408 – Anyone who is not Christian is barred from performing imperial service in imperial palaces – pagans resign in numbers

409 – Any judge or official who does not enforce laws against pagans are to be punished (those who keep silent are also to be punished, so, you must vehemently proclaim that you are Christian)

410 – Rome is sacked by Goths – Pagans claim that Christians are ruining the state (about half the population is still pagan)

c.415 – St. Augustine publishes the “City of God” in which he claims pagans are responsible for the sacking of Rome and that religion must be eradicated

c.415 – Pagan literature is banned and burned to make room for Christian dogma (like St. Augustine’s book on Christian psalms as opposed to Plato and Aristotle)

In Regard to Pagan Authors

"non Christian writings came in for this same treatment, that is destruction in great bonfires at the center of the town square. Copyists were discouraged from replacing them by the threat of having their hands cut off”

This includes all our knowledge of… everything Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides,

Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Cicero, Virgil, Cato, Polybius, Galen, Archimedes, etc.

Leaving… psalms and the Bible

It Gets Worse

416 – Pagans can no longer hold any imperial rank in the Empire. They also cannot be judges

423 – If anyone is suspected of performing pagan rituals they are to have all their goods confiscated and they will then be exiled

425 – Pagans cannot plead cases in court (all run by Christians) and cannot be soldiers

426 – Illegal to convert from Christianity (apostasy) 435 – Suspects of pagan rituals are to be executed . Magistrates who

fail to carry out penalty will be killed 451 – Suspects of paganism will forfeit property to the (Christian)

state, and they will then be killed 472 – If you own property and anything pagan has occurred on your

property your goods will be confiscated, you will then be tortured and possibly killed, or you will be sentenced to life of hard labor in mines

Meanwhile, in Fanatical Christianity

The Christianization of the Roman Empire made it to where the Stylites could come

down from their lonely pillars and be received warmly by Roman society (now

Christian by law)

Ironically, the isolation that made them holy transforms into a privileged status,

which quickly makes them rich and corrupt

Out of Isolation

Since Christian communities were isolated and different, someone needed to pull them together

The Church began to form as an organizational body

It rewarded those who joined, and chastised those who did not Similar connection to the communist party in

the early USSR and its purpose and intent If you wanted to live a good life in the late

Roman Empire (or even a normal one) you HAD to join the Catholic Church – whether you believed in it or not

The Church gained support as

Christians became the

dominant religion in the Empire

The Christian Church begins to pass legislation

that benefits Christians

They pass legislation to

harm non-Christians

Support? Or Coercion?

They pass legislation to

make it illegal not to be a Christian

All the wealthy pagan nobles

become members of the Church

The Church sponsors pagan

killings

Remember the Christian persecutions by Rome so famously remembered? What

about the Pagan persecutions?

The Catholic Church Takes Hold

Over time, all of the wealthy and powerful individuals of Roman society would be part of the Catholic Church, whether they were Christian or not

Note: if you were Christian at this time, you were CATHOLIC – until 1054, nothing else existed legally

Using their power, Christians would dominate Rome, and subsequently all of Europe in the coming chaos

All kings of Western Europe after Rome would follow the orders of the clergy and the Pope – the remnants of order and the holders of all the political keys in the West

Paganism Eventually Eradicated

Along with all of its art, culture, values, beliefs, education, philosophy, science, and history

Western Europe would be Christianized, monolithic, and close-minded

We are entering into the “Dark Ages”, which only Western Europe went through – connections or coincidence?

Bear in mind, the Renaissance (or “rebirth” of all things great) is a period of deviation from the Church and Christian dogma and the reemergence of Greek and Roman (pagan) learning