Question by KateluvsLeo: what was the church-state relationship when Constantine was emperor?
Was it collaboration, church domination, or state denomination? And can you please also tell me why. Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by Prometheus Unbound
Bad for the established Pagans
Add your own answer in the comments!
MLE
November 26, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Istambul was constantinople…
Steve E
November 26, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Constantine became the church, turning state domination into church domination in the process.
Jared
November 26, 2010 at 9:02 pm
#2. Thinly veil your homework as a legitimate question and post it in the wrong section of Yahoo! Answers.
dogpatch USA
November 26, 2010 at 9:34 pm
they crucified christians till they found the persian influx even less desirable and then they legalized christianity in a strategy to deal with the social political climate of those primarily pagan times .
Shinigami (FAC) weeaboo
November 26, 2010 at 9:59 pm
crappy.
John O'Keefe
November 26, 2010 at 10:41 pm
the “what” is hard – but let me just say it ruined the church from that point forward. the “why” is simple – power.
by uniting under of “state controlled religion” the state, as the time, could control all areas of your life – they owned you, hook, line and sinker – all in all it was the beginning of the end for the faith
Not a Real Doctor
November 26, 2010 at 11:19 pm
First, the state had no direct influence over the church. The two were completely separate entities. The Emperor himself was unable to put through a single canon, doctrine or law. In fact, Constantine and many subsequent Emperors were unable to push their personal agendas through. Constantine tried and failed to impose Arianism, Justinian tried and failed to overturn the Church’s decision against the Monophysites, etc. All bishops were indendent, and all decisions affecting any are larger than a single city had to pass by the majority vote of all bishops in the diocese. Even a patriarch had to submit to the vote of a council. Individual bishops had to be accepted by the congregation. Any bishop who remained in office against the will of the congregation was immediately excommunicated. There were also many restrictions placed on the clergy. A bishop, for example, was only allowed to govern the diocese where he was initially ordained.
Second, Christian organizations were granted certain imperial benefits, such as free book printing, free church building (under certain conditions), and tax breaks. In order to facilitate the distribution of imperial benefits, a congregation had to meet the official definition of a Christian church. This definition was actually written into Roman law, and was determined by an Ecumenical Council (a majority vote of all bishops in the Empire). Churches who did not meet the official definition were still free to practice whatever they wanted, but they were not entitled to imperial benefits under Roman law.
Incidentally, this issue is one of the most misunderstood elements of Christian history. The policies are pretty clear from the writings of the Church Fathers and historians, as well as the actual canons of the Ecumenical Councils. For more information on this complex period, read the “History of Byzantium” by John Julius Norwich, and then follow that up with Eusebius on Church History and the life of Constantine, and the acts of the first four or five Ecumenical Councils.
Purity
November 27, 2010 at 12:19 am
Before Constantine (love this history section), Jews and Christians were highly persecuted. They were heretics. But Constantine was converted into Christianity. He was emperor of the Roman Empire (obviously) and so his empire stopped persecuting Christians and he formed the religion Roman Catholic, which later got out of control (heard of the Spanish Inquisition? Catholic church is right behind it. Get this for irony, the Pope during the inquistion was named Pope Innocent! Ha! Do you know what type of torture ppl went through?!?!?!?) and is what we have now.
O, ya, christians were formed when Jesus was resurected and His disciples spread the Wonderful!!!! news.
Sage
November 27, 2010 at 12:30 am
The Roman Emperor Constantine produced the bible and he was a pagan not god!!! He also organized Christianity into the Holly Roman Catholic Church!! Not in Israel or any of the countries of supposed origin but entirely Italian!!
Not one word of it is contemporary with the period and was not written until many years after the period the story is set in!!
What a wonder full disinformation and deception campaign he waged against his Christian enemies – so good in fact that Christians are still following the deception to this day!!!