Relations between Christianity, the Roman government, and the Hellenistic culture
Church-state relations
The Christians were not respectful toward ancestral pagan customs, and their preaching of a new
king sounded like revolution. The opposition of the Jews to them led to breaches of the peace.
Thus, the Christians could very well be unpopular, and they often were. Paul’s success at
Ephesus provoked a riot to defend the cult of the goddess Artemis. In 64 ce a fire destroyed
much of Rome, and, in order to escape blame, the emperor Nero killed a “vast multitude” of
Christians as scapegoats. For the first time, Rome was conscious that Christians were distinct
from Jews. But there probably was no formal senatorial enactment proscribing Christianity at
this time. Nero’s persecution, which was local and short, was condemned by Tacitus as an
expression of the emperor’s cruelty rather than as a service to the public good. Soon thereafter,
however, the profession of Christianity was defined as a capital crime—though of a special kind,
because one gained pardon by apostasy (rejection of a faith once confessed) demonstrated by
offering sacrifice to the pagan gods or to the emperor. Popular gossip soon accused the
Christians of secret vices, such as eating murdered infants (because of the secrecy surrounding
the Lord’s Supper and the use of the words body and blood) and sexual promiscuity (because of
the practice of Christians calling each other “brother” or “sister” while living as husband and
wife).
Early persecutions were sporadic, caused by local conditions and dependent on the attitude of the
governor. The fundamental cause of persecution was the Christians’ conscientious rejection of
the gods whose favour was believed to have brought success to the empire. But distrust was
increased by Christian detachment and reluctance to serve in the imperial service and in the
army. At any time in the 2nd or 3rd centuries, Christians could find themselves the object of
unpleasant attention. Violence against them could be precipitated by a bad harvest, a barbarian
attack, or a public festival of the emperor cult. Yet, there were also long periods of peace, and the
stability provided by the empire and its network of roads and communications may have
facilitated Christianity’s growth.
The ambivalence of official policy is perhaps best revealed in the exchange between Pliny the
Younger, governor of Bithynia, and the emperor Trajan in 111. Pliny executed Christians who
were brought before him and who refused to worship the emperor and Roman gods but then
sought the emperor’s advice on how to treat Christians in his province. Trajan responded that
Christians legitimately brought before Pliny should be punished but that the governor should not
seek out Christians for persecution. The Christians should be left alone as long as they did not
stir up trouble.
Organized empire-wide persecutions occurred, however, at moments of extreme crisis and as a
response to the growth of the faith. During the 3rd century, economic collapse, political chaos,
military revolt, and barbarian invasion nearly destroyed the empire. Christians were blamed for
the desperate situation because they denied the gods who were thought to protect Rome, thereby
bringing down their wrath. To regain divine protection, the emperors introduced the systematic
persecution of Christians throughout the empire. The emperor Decius (reigned 249–251) issued
an edict requiring all citizens to offer sacrifice to the emperor and to obtain from commissioners
a certificate witnessing to the act. Many of these certificates have survived. The requirement
created an issue of conscience, especially because certificates could be bought.
The great bishop-theologian Cyprian of Carthage was martyred during the next great wave of
persecutions (257–259), which were aimed at eradicating the leaders of the church. The
persecuting emperor Valerian, however, became a Persian prisoner of war, and his son Gallienus
issued an edict of toleration restoring confiscated churches and cemeteries.
Beginning in February 303, under the co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius the church faced the
worst of all persecutions. The reasons for this persecution are uncertain but have been ascribed,
among other things, to the influence of Galerius, a fanatic follower of the traditional Roman
religion; Diocletian’s own devotion to traditional religion and his desire to use Roman religion to
restore complete unity in the empire; and the fear of an alienation of rebellious armies from
emperor worship. After Diocletian’s retirement, Galerius continued the persecution until 311,
when he was stricken by a painful disease, described in exquisite detail by the church historian
Eusebius, who believed it was an act of revenge by the Christian God. Galerius died shortly after
ending the persecution.
The situation of the early church improved further the following year, when the emperor
Constantine, prior to a battle against a rival emperor, experienced a vision of the cross in the
heavens with the legend “In this sign, conquer.” Constantine’s victory led to his eventual
conversion to Christianity. In 313 the joint emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of
Milan, a manifesto of toleration, which, among other things, granted Christians full legal rights.
The persecutions had two lasting consequences. Although the blood of the martyrs, as
contemporaries declared, had helped the church to grow, schism eventually arose with those who
had yielded to imperial pressure. Groups such as the Donatists in North Africa, for example,
refused to recognize as Christians those who had sacrificed to the emperor or turned over holy
books during the persecutions.
Christianity and Classical culture
The attitude of the earliest Christians toward paganism and the imperial government was
complicated by their close association with Greco-Roman literary and artistic culture: it was
difficult to attack the former without seeming to criticize the latter. Nevertheless, the Christian
opinion of other religions (except Judaism) was generally very negative. All forms of paganism
—the Oriental mystery (salvational) religions of Isis, Attis, Adonis, and Mithra as well as the
traditional Greco-Roman polytheisms and the cult of the emperor—were regarded as the worship
of evil spirits. Like the Jews, the Christians (unless they were gnostic) were opposed to
syncretism. With the exception of the notion of baptism as a rebirth, Christians generally and
significantly avoided the characteristic vocabularies of the mystery religions.
Many Christians also rejected the literary traditions of the Classical world, denouncing the
immoral and unethical behaviour of the deities and heroes of ancient myth and literature.
Reflecting this position, Tertullian once asked, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Despite
this hostility, many Christians recognized the value of ancient letters. St. Paul could quote such
pagan poets as Aratus, Menander, and Epimenides. St. Clement of Rome cited the dramatists
Sophocles and Euripides. Educated Christians shared this literary tradition with educated pagans.
The defenders of Christianity against pagan attack (especially St. Justin Martyr and St. Clement
of Alexandria in the 2nd century) welcomed Classical philosophy and literature. They wished
only to reject all polytheistic myth and cult and all metaphysical and ethical doctrines
irreconcilable with Christian belief (e.g., Stoic materialism and Platonic doctrines of the
transmigration of souls and the eternity of the world). Clement of Alexandria, the second known
head of the catechetical school at Alexandria, possessed a wide erudition in the main classics and
knew the works of Plato and Homer intimately. His successor at Alexandria, Origen, showed less
interest in literary and aesthetic matters but was a greater scholar and thinker; he first applied the
methods of Alexandrian philology to the text of the Bible. St. Augustine held that although
Classical literature contained superstitious imaginings, it included references to moral truths and
learning that could be used in the service of God. The great Church Father compared Classical
literature to the gold of the Egyptians, which God permitted the Hebrews to use on their journey
to the Promised Land even though it had once been used in pagan religious practice.
The Apologists
The Christian Apologists of the 2nd century were a group of writers who sought to defend the
faith against Jewish and Greco-Roman critics. They refuted a variety of scandalous rumours,
including allegations of cannibalism and promiscuity. By and large, they sought both to make
Christianity intelligible to members of Greco-Roman society and to define the Christian
understanding of God, the divinity of Christ, and the resurrection of the body. To accomplish
this, the Apologists adopted the philosophical and literary vocabulary of the broader culture to
develop a more refined expression of the faith that could appeal to the sophisticated sensibilities
of their pagan contemporaries.
Second-century Platonists, for example, found it easy to think of Mind (nous) or Reason (Logos)
as divine power immanent within the world. Philo of Alexandria had spoken of the Logos as
mediating between the transcendent God and the created order. Although some of their
coreligionists were offended by the use of Greek philosophical ideas, the Apologists made
important advances in the development of Christian thought and were the first of the Christian
theologians.
The early liturgy, the calendar, and the arts
St. Paul’s letters mention worship on the first day of the week. In John’s Apocalypse, Sunday is
called “the Lord’s day.” The weekly commemoration of the Resurrection replaced for Christians
the synagogue meetings on Saturdays; the practice of circumcision was dropped, and initiation
was by baptism; and continuing membership in the church was signified by weekly participation
in the Eucharist. Baptism in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
was preceded by instruction (catechesis) and fasting. Persons about to be baptized renounced evil
and, as they made the declaration of faith, were dipped in water. They then received by anointing
and by the laying on of hands (confirmation) the gift of the Holy Spirit and incorporation within
the body of Christ. Only the baptized were allowed to be admitted to the Eucharist, when the
words of Jesus at the Last Supper were recalled; the Holy Spirit was invoked upon the people of
God making the offering, and the consecrated bread and wine were distributed to the faithful.
Accounts of these rites are given in the works of Justin (c. 150) and especially in the Apostolic
Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 220).
Before the 4th century, worship was in private houses. A house church of 232 ce has been
excavated at Doura-Europus on the Euphrates. Whereas pagan temples were intended as the
residence of the gods, churches were designed for the community. The rectangular basilica with
an apse (semicircular projection to house the altar), which had been used for Roman judicial
buildings, was found especially suitable. The Doura-Europus church has Gospel scenes on the
walls. But many Old Testament heroes also appear in the earliest Christian art; Jewish models
probably were followed. The artists adapted conventional pagan forms as well (good shepherd;
praying persons with hands uplifted). Fishing scenes, doves, and lyres were popular. In
themselves neutral, they carried special meaning to the Christians. The words of several pre-
Constantinian hymns survive (e.g., “Shepherd of tender youth,” by St. Clement of Alexandria),
but only one with musical notation (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1786 of the 3rd century).
The earliest Christians wrote to convert or to edify, not to please. Their literature was not
produced with aesthetic intentions. Nevertheless, the pulpit offered scope for oratory (as in
Melito of Sardis’s Homily on the Pascha, c. 170). Desire for romance and adventure was
satisfied by apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, recounting their travels, with continence replacing
love. Justin and Irenaeus did not write for high style but simply to convey information.
Apologists hoping for well-educated readers, however, could not be indifferent to literary tastes.
By 200 ce the most graceful living writer of Greek literature was St. Clement of Alexandria, and
the liveliest writer of Latin was Tertullian. Wholly different in temperament (Clement urbane
and allusive, Tertullian vigorous and vulgar), both men wrote distinguished prose with regard to
form and rhetorical convention.
y the 3rd century the Bible needed explanation. Origen of Alexandria set out to provide
commentaries and undertook for the Old Testament a collation of the various Greek versions
with the original Hebrew. Many of his sermons and commentaries were translated into Latin
between 385 and 400 by Tyrannius Rufinus and St. Jerome; their learning and passionate
mystical aspiration shaped Western medieval exegesis (critical interpretive methods).
The alliance between church and empire
Constantine the Great, declared emperor at York, Britain (306), converted to Christianity,
convened the Council of Arles (314), became sole emperor (324), virtually presided over the
ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325), founded the city of Constantinople (330), and died in 337.
In the 4th century he was regarded as the great revolutionary, especially in religion. He did not
make Christianity the religion of the empire, but he granted important concessions to the church
and its bishops, and his conversion encouraged other Roman citizens to become Christian. His
foundation of Constantinople (conceived to be the new Rome) as a Christian city untainted by
pagan religion profoundly affected the future political and ecclesiastical structure of the empire
and the church. Relations with old Rome, whether in matters of church or of state, were not to be
cordial.
Constantine completely altered the relationship between the church and the imperial government,
thereby beginning a process that eventually made Christianity the official religion of the empire.
Many new converts were won, including those who converted only with the hope of advancing
their careers. The church was also faced by a new form of governmental interference when
Constantine presided at the Council of Nicaea, which addressed the Arian controversy (a debate
between Arius and Athanasius and their followers over the nature of the Son of God); the council
provided the definition of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son that is still
accepted by most Christians today. Although Nicaea spoke against Arianism, which maintained
that the Son is a created being and not equal to God the Father, Constantine in later life leaned
toward it, and his successor, Constantius II, was openly Arian. Despite this turmoil and the
outright hostility toward Christianity of the emperor Julian the Apostate (reigned 361–363), the
church survived, and the adherents of the traditional Roman religion relapsed into passive
resistance. The quietly mounting pressure against paganism in the 4th century culminated in the
decrees of Emperor Theodosius I (reigned 379–395), who made Catholic Christianity the official
religion of the empire and who closed many pagan temples. By the end of the 4th century,
therefore, Christianity had been transformed from a persecuted sect to the dominant faith of the
empire, in the process becoming intertwined with the imperial government.
The link between church and state was expressed in the civil dignity and insignia granted to
bishops, who also began to be entrusted with ambassadorial roles. Constantine himself appointed
bishops, and he and his successors convened councils of bishops to address important matters of
the faith. By 400 the patriarch of Constantinople (to his avowed embarrassment) enjoyed
precedence at court before all civil officials. The emperors issued a number of rulings that
afforded greater privilege and responsibility to the bishops, enhancing their position in both
church and society. The close relations between the empire and the church in the 4th century
were reflected in the writings of St. Ambrose (bishop of Milan, 374–397), who used “Roman”
and “Christian” almost as synonyms. After Theodosius ordered the massacre of the citizens of
Thessalonica, however, Ambrose demanded that the emperor undergo penance, thereby
enforcing upon Theodosius submission to the church as its son, not its master.
A new movement took shape in the late 3rd and 4th centuries that was a response to both the
tragedy of the final persecutions and to the triumph of Constantine’s conversion. Monasticism
began in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century in response to contemporary social conditions,
but it had scriptural roots and reflected the attraction of the ascetic life that had long been part of
the Christian and philosophical traditions. The first of the Christian monks was St. Anthony
(251–356). Communal, or cenobitic, monasticism was first organized by St. Pachomius (c. 290–
346), who also composed the first monastic rule. St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae
(370–379), rejected the hermetic ideal, insisting on communities with a rule safeguarding the
bishop’s authority and with concrete acts of service to perform (e.g., hospital work and teaching).
Monasticism quickly spread to the West, where it was decisively shaped by St. John Cassian of
Marseille (c. 360–435) and St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–c. 547), recognized as the father of
Western monasticism. Benedict’s Rule, which eventually became predominant, was noted for its
humanity and its balance of prayer and work. Because the manual work of monks often consisted
of the copying of manuscripts, the monasteries became a great centre of cultural life for
centuries. Benedict’s contemporary Cassiodorus (c. 490–c. 585) had the works of Classical
authors copied (e.g., Cicero and Quintilian) as well as Bibles and the works of the early Church
Fathers.
The church was significantly slow to undertake missionary work beyond the frontiers of the
empire. The Goth Ulfilas converted the Goths to Arian Christianity (c. 340–350) and translated
the Bible from Greek to Gothic—omitting, as unsuitable, warlike passages of the Old Testament.
The Goths passed their Arian faith on to other Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals. (Sometime
between 496 and 508 the Franks, under their great king Clovis, became the first of the Germanic
peoples to convert to Catholic Christianity, and they were soon followed by the Visigoths.) In the
5th century the Western provinces were overrun by Goths, Vandals, and Huns, and the imperial
succession was ended when a German leader, Odoacer, decided to rule without an emperor
(476). The position of the papacy was enhanced by the decline of state power, and this prepared
the way for the popes’ temporal sovereignty over parts of Italy (which they retained from the 7th
to the 19th century; Vatican City’s independent sovereignty was recognized in 1929).
