The persecution of paganism. Constantine the Great adhered strictly to his policy of religious toleration and, although an active supporter of Christianity, took no measures against the pagan cults except to forbid the private sacrifices and practice of certain types of magical rites. He held the title of pontifex maximus and consequently was at the head of the official pagan worship. With his sons, Constantius and Constans, the Christian persecution of the pagan began. In 341 they prohibited public performance of pagan sacrifices, and they permitted the confiscation of temples and their conversion into Christian places of worship. With the accession of Julian this persecution came to an end, and there was in the main a return to the policy of religious toleration, although Christians were prohibited from interpreting classical literature in the schools. The attempt of Julian to create a universal pagan church proved abortive and his scheme did not survive his death. His successors, Jovian, Valentinian I and Valens, adhered to the policy of Constantine the Great.
Gratian was the first emperor to refuse the title of pontifex maximus, and to deprive paganism of its status as an official religion of Rome. In 382 he withdrew the state support of the priesthoods of Rome, and removed from the Senate house the altar and statue of Victory, which Julian had restored after its temporary removal by [pg 387]Constantius. This altar was for many of the senators the symbol of the life of the state itself, and their spokesman Symmachus made an eloquent plea for its restoration. However, owing to the influence of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, the emperor remained obdurate, and a second appeal to Valentinian II was equally in vain. Although the brief reign of Eugenius produced a pagan revival in Rome, the cause of paganism was lost forever in the imperial city. In the fifth century the Senate of Rome was thoroughly Christian.
Theodosius the Great was even more energetic than his colleague Gratian in the suppression of paganism. In 380 he issued an edict requiring all his subjects to embrace Christianity. In 391 he ordered the destruction of the great temple of Serapis at Alexandria, an event which sounded the death knell of the pagan cause in the East. The following year Theodosius absolutely forbade the practice of heathen worship under the penalties for treason and sacrilege. Theodosius II continued the vigorous persecution of the heathen. Adherence to pagan beliefs constituted a crime, and in the Theodosian Code of 438 the laws against pagans find their place among the laws regulating civic life. It was during the reign of Theodosius II, in 415, that the pagan philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia, fell a victim to the fanaticism of the Christian mob of Alexandria.
Still, many persons of prominence continued to be secret devotees of pagan beliefs, and pagan philosophy was openly taught at Athens until the closing of the schools by Justinian. The acceptance of Christianity was more rapid in the cities than in the rural districts. This gave rise to the use of the term pagan (from the Latin paganus, “rural”) to designate non-Christian; a usage which became official about 370. And it was among the rural population that pagan beliefs and practices persisted longest. However, between the fifth and the ninth centuries paganism practically disappeared within the lands of the empire.
The long association with paganism and the rapid incorporation of large numbers of new converts into the ranks of the church were not without influence upon the character of Christianity itself. The ancient belief in magic contributed largely to the spread of the belief in miracles, and the development of the cult of the saints was stimulated by the pagan conception of inferior divinities, demigods, and daemons, while many pagan festivals were Christianized and made festivals of the church.
II. The Church in the Christian Empire
The emperor and the church. The religious policy of Constantine the Great had the effect of making Christianity a religion of state and incorporating the Christian church in the state organism. Thereby the clergy gained the support of the imperial authority in spreading the belief of the church and in enforcing its ordinances throughout the empire. Yet this support was won at the price of the recognition of the autocratic power of the emperor over the church as well as in the political sphere. Subsequently, however, this recognition was only accorded to orthodox emperors; that is those who supported the traditional doctrine of the church as sanctioned in its general councils.
Constantine made use of his supremacy over the church to enforce unity within its ranks. However, he did not champion any particular creed but limited his interference to carrying into effect the decisions of the church councils or synods which he summoned to pass judgment upon questions which threatened the unity of the church and the peace of the state.
These councils were a development from the provincial synods, which had previously met to decide church matters of local importance. Procedure in the councils was modelled upon that of the Roman Senate; the meetings were conducted by imperial legates, their decisions were issued in the form of imperial edicts, and it was to the emperor that appeals from these decrees were made. The first of the great councils was the Synod of Arles, a council of the bishops of the western church, summoned by Constantine in 314 to settle the Donatist schism in the church in Africa. This was followed in 325 by the first universal or ecumenical council of the whole Christian church which met at Nicaea to decide upon the orthodoxy of the teachings of Arius of Alexandria.