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 neversatisfied 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
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
Support? Or Coercion?
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 nonChristians
Remember the Christian persecutions by Rome so
famously remembered? What about the Pagan
persecutions?
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
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