24 February 2010
Religion under the Romans
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Roman religion was polytheistic and flexible
Roman conservatism engendered respect for other
religions
 Several existed with the Empire
○ Greek Mystery Cults
 Celebrate god of wine (Dionysus) or grain (Demeter)
 Secret rites: Demeter looked to promise of eternal life
○ Cults of Isis and Mithras
 Gender specific
 Eternal life, promise of resurrection for moral behavior
○ Manichaeism
 Struggle between dark and light (good and evil)
○ Judaism
○ Christianity
The Rise of Dissent, ca. 4 B.C.E.
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Roman rule caused resentment among the Jews of
Judea
Many Jews believed the messiah was coming soon
to overthrow the Romans and liberate the Jews from
bondage.
 Jews in Judea began embracing messianic cults and cult
leaders
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Jesus of Nazareth was one of these leaders.
 His teachings were Jewish
 he did not really challenge Roman rule as such
 his followers considered themselves orthodox Jews (as
would the earliest Christians)
Jesus of Nazareth

Difficult to trace him historically—no written
sources
 Born 4 B.C.E.
 Age 30: Baptized by John the Baptist, who is
executed by the Romans
 Criticized the pillar of the Jewish Establishment,
the Saducees (priests and wealthy men)
 Rejected Zealots who sought revolt against
Rome
 Rejected need to follow the letter of biblical law
The Products of Dissent
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The Romans saw such messianic cult
movements as threats to public order
 arrested and crucified many of these people,
including Jesus
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Immediate and later followers like Paul of
Tarsus and Augustine of Hippo would reformat Christianity for a wider audience
 Paul becomes a missionary throughout Rome
 Pauline Churches prospered and departed from
Jewish traditions
 New emphasis on differences between Judaism
and Christianity
 Increased suppression of Judaism in the Roman
Empire
Tacitus: Nero’s Persecution of the
Christians (Burning of Rome, 64 CE)

Yet no human effort, no princely largess nor offerings to the gods could make that
infamous rumor disappear that Nero had somehow ordered the fire. Therefore, in
order to abolish that rumor, Nero falsely accused and executed with the most
exquisite punishments those people called Christians, who were infamous for their
abominations. The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by
the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius; and though repressed,
this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the
origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome, to which all that is horrible and
shameful floods together and is celebrated. Therefore, first those were seized who
admitted their faith, and then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude
were convicted, not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the
human race. And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were
killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed
to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as
nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle and performed a
Circus game, in the habit of a charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the
race-course. Even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the
most recent example of the consequences of crime, people began to pity these
sufferers, because they were consumed not for the public good but on account of
the fierceness of one man.
Making Christianity Official
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Constantine, Edict of Milan, 313 C.E.
Theodosius I, 391 C.E.
Challenges to Christianity’s dominance?
 Polytheism
○ Julian the Apostate
 Judaism
○ Special allowances
○ Increased restrictions
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Christianity’s appeal
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Community
Salvation
Charity
Roles for women
The Growth of the Christian Church

The words Christian Church referred to the
officials who administered to Christians
 institutionalized as a Roman religion years after the
death of Jesus of Nazareth
 the church was organized like the Roman state
○ Deacons
○ Priests
○ Bishops
○ Archbishops
Questions of Orthodoxy

Arianism
 Arius addressed the issue of the Trinity and co-
eternal existence
 Council of Nicaea, 325 C.E.
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Monophysitism
 Divine takes precedence over the human
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Nestorianism
 Mary gives birth to a human, a vessel for the divine
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Donatism
 Rejection of those who cooperated with Roman
authority during the Great Persecution
Leadership and Orthodoxy
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Early Christian leaders wrote intellectual treatises
foundation for Christian orthodoxy
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pagan beliefs into Christianity
Paul of Tarsus – split from Jewish ritual practice
The Council of Nicaea (325 C.E
Ambrose church/state
Augustine of Hippo historical/philosophical base
In the East: The Byzantines (400-788 C.E.)
The Byzantine East kept institutions
of old Roman Empire alive
 The Byzantine Church was under
direct control of the emperor
 Secular and religious leadership
was inseparable
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Eastern Empire avoided the massive
transformation that shaped western Europe
 Called Byzantium (old name for Constantinople)
 By the 500s C.E. had attained great authority and
wealth
○ Trade routes and agriculture
○ luxury goods from east Asia
○ religious festivals and events
○ Considered themselves “true” preservers of
“Romanness”
Empire in the East, 500-565 C.E.

Despite ideas about “Romanness” in the
Byzantine East…
 Women lived more like women in classical Athens
 Christianity
 The government faced corruption
Social and Cultural Conflict in the
Byzantine East
Justinian, 527-565 C.E.
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constant military expedition to reclaim the West
 Re-occupied parts of Italy, Spain and north Africa
○ destroyed the West’s infrastructure
○ Destroyed East’s treasury
○ Unpopular taxes burdened cities and countryside
The Reign of Justinian, 527-565 C.E.
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To create stability
 Justinian instituted a massive re-building campaign (constructing
Hagia Sophia)
 centralized the government by organizing his law code
 Enforced religious unity
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Preserved classical Latin and Greek literature
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viewed by Church authorities as heretical
Elite Christians seeking jobs had to read Greek and Latin texts
Classical rhetoric became a method for presenting Christian theology
Christians incorporated classical symbols and imagery in art
Kept some Platonic and lots of Aristotelian work as inspiration
Justinian’s Reign, 527-565 C.E.
Rise of a New Religion
As Christianity develops in the Roman
Empire, a new religion emerges in
Arabia
 Islam, “submission to God”
 Followers of these two religions (and
their actions) dominate the history of the
medieval West
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The Origins of Islam

Muhammad
 b. 570 C.E., d. 632 C.E.
 came from a profitable family of merchants in Mecca (in
modern day Saudi Arabia)
Some education, mainly in commerce
Married a wealthy widow and rose to some degree
of status in Meccan society by age 30
 Most of Arab culture recognized a series of
gods/goddesses
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 also acknowledged Judaism and Christianity because of
international commerce
The Origins of Islam
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Muhammad had his first spiritual experience
in 610 C.E.
 experiencing visions from the archangel Gabriel
 message of monotheism and missionary work
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An expanding citizenry of Meccan citizens
joined him and helped spread his revelations
 Qur’an in the early 650s
 hadith (stories about Muhammad and his sayings
and deeds)
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Brought tension with the ruling elite in Mecca
 preferred the old religion of shrine tribute and
offerings to gods/goddesses
The Spread of Islam
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The pressure forced Muhammad and followers to
flee in 622 C.E. to Medina
 Muhammad expanded his visions
 became a prophet
 set up a society of exile followers
In 624 C.E., Muhammad and his followers sacked
Meccan temples and shrines in the Battle of Badr
 Muhammad and his followers would spend the
next two years conquering most of Arabia in the
same way (until his death)
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The Organization of Islam
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Muhammad believed God (Allah) was speaking to him
through revelation
Muhammad’s revelations called on people to
 submit to the will of the one true god
 acknowledge that one god created the universe and everything in it.
 Those who did so were called Muslim-- “submission” to Islam, the will
of God
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Muhammad presented himself as the latest prophet in a
series including Noah, Moses and Jesus
Followers believed in ummah
The Organization of Islam
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Committed to the 5 Pillars of Islam
○ Zakat, tax used for alms
○ Ramadan, fast remembering Battle of Badr
○ Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca
○ Salat, formal worship (initially) 3 times a day
○ Shahadah, profession of faith
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No successor to Muhammad seemed appropriate
upon his death
 caliphs were chosen to succeed Muhammad by elites
wishing to hold economic and political sway
Islamic Society
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Muhammad’s teachings emphasized social equality
 Caliphate based on social hierarchy (birth, religious distinction, wealth
and talent)
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Slavery and anti-African prejudice, in particular, was a
mainstay of later Islamic states
The Qur’an gave women spiritual and sexual equality
 later Islamic states subordinated women to male rule in private and
public life
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Islam was an urban religion
 came to the countryside only with expanded trade
 facilitated a centralized authority
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late 1200s: local Islamic communities develop their own
interpretations of Islam with new religious schools and
organizations emerging
The West: Many kingdoms
With the decline of certain Roman imperial rule, power and stability
shifted to kinship networks, church authority and patronage, royal
courts and wealth in land (usually from plunder)
 Power diffused and wielded by Church authorities and kings
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Europe’s Dark Ages
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What makes the early medieval period “dark”?
Expansion of Christianity
 Germanic tribes settle former Western Empire
○ Christendom
 Merovingians, 5th Century (modern-day France)
○ King Clovis
 Anglo-Saxon England: Council of Whitby 663
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Muslim invasions
 710, Iberian Peninsula
 Move through Iberian Peninsula, across Pyrenees into
modern-day France
 Charles Martel, “The Hammer”
The West: A medley of kingdoms
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During the 6th century the Franks had
established themselves as the dominant
power in Roman Gaul (much of modernday France and western Germany)
 Made up of decaying Roman cities due to
loss of commercial and cultural Roman
vitality and depopulation of the areas
 Organized around what would become the
feudal system
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Monarchs and aristocrats who held power
due to hereditary wealth, status and
political influence
 Production of children became central to
keeping family lines going
 Because need for marriage, aristocrats
embraced Christian tradition (more conservative
in the West) and abandoned classical thinking
 Marriage held together extended families and
kept land in the hands of heirs
 Merovingian kings bolstered their power by
allying with aristocrats
The Powerful in Merovingian Society
The Early Middle Ages (700-1100 C.E.)

Charlemagne (768-814 C.E.) established
the powerful Frankish state
 ruled his Merovingian empire from Paris
 Used missi dominici, counts with hereditary
power to maintain order

Crowned Holy Roman Emperor on
December 25, 800 C.E.
 Pope Leo III
 perpetuate Roman imperial ideas by vehicle
of the Church,
 revive classical learning, while furthering
monasticism and Christian educational reform
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This empire would be divided in 3 by his
successor sons and reduce the power of
the Holy Roman Emperor