11-07-2006, 06:06 PM
Hope the following won't be considered a waste of bandwidth.
Was trying to find out the ground conditions in Rome at the time, though it's hard to get a proper feel for the situation in which christianism made so much headway there. Felt a few things were somewhat reminiscent of the state of India today. The following is from Joseph McCabe's 'The Story of Religious Controversy':
(1) Vague similarity. Reminds me a little of votebank politics and a hint of the appeal of the idea of secularism (towards intolerant christianity, I mean, since the Romans were already tolerant of religions in general):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Diocletian and his colleague had abdicated in 304, and Galerius, now promoted to be emperor in the east, with Constantius {Constantine's father} as emperor in the west, prevented the young Constantine from obtaining the rank of Caesar.
I will not drag the reader through the details of the bloody civil wars that followed upon this multiplication of ambitions, but the question of sparing or favoring the Christians of the empire now became, to use modern language, a plank in the political platform. Religious writers affect to see in this a confirmation of their very large figures of the number of Christians. It proves nothing of the kind. In a contest which seems fairly even and uncertain the support of any fanatical minority is useful. Moreover, there was the air of political wisdom which a man might have in proposing to put an end to religious, dissensions in the hard-pressed empire. It would appeal to educated pagans.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(2) Somewhat similar to laws favouring minority religions in India (and reservations based on caste) which are driving a wedge into Indian society:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But Constantine immediately went beyond this declaration of religious neutrality and evinced an attitude of what is now called benevolent neutrality. In the same year, 313, he exempted the Christian clergy from municipal offices. In the Roman administration these local functions, so far from being paid, were extremely costly and onerous to the citizens who were compelled to discharge them, and there was a very general attempt to evade them. Exemption was regarded as so valuable a privilege that the Christian clergy now discovered a remarkable number of "vocations" to their body, and great disorder ensued in the municipal administration, I leave it to the Catholic historian Count Beugnot ("Histoire de la destruction du paganisme" I, 78) to estimate the result:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The effect of this measure was soon felt. On all sides one saw crowds of people make for the churches who were moved not so much by conviction as by the hope of reward; and this first favor granted to Christianity admitted to its bosom guilty passions which had hitherto been foreign to it, passions which had speedy and pernicious consequences. The complaints of the municipal bodies and the disorder that followed in the administration of the provinces soon compelled Constantine to modify the privilege.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This, in fact, was Constantine's invariable experience when he listened to clerical suggestions of legislation in their favor.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(3) Bribery to convert (this was during Constantine's time, because Christian emperors after him issued severe decrees to persecute the Romans of the Old Religion):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From the first Constantine had, apart from his unsuccessful decrees, showered wealth and privileges upon the Church. A stream of gold flowed from the palace, and new churches, of a more attractive nature, began to rise. At court and in the army the best way, if not the only way, to secure promotion was to become convinced by the brilliant evidence of the religion. Even ordinary citizens were rewarded with a baptismal robe and a piece of gold. Villages were raised to the rank of cities if all their inhabitants exchanged Jupiter for Christ. In ten years imperial gold had done more than the blood of all the martyrs, the miracles of all the saints, and the arguments of all the apologists.
Except that wealth continued to reach the Roman clergy, the progress of the Church in the west was now suspended. The city of Constantinople was dedicated in 330. The world had at least a Christian metropolis; and it was a superb city. Already, as I said, more than three fourths of the Christians were in the ignorant east, and they were now encouraged to attack pagan temples and openly ventilate their scorn. Few pagans could get advancement in the east. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Was trying to find out the ground conditions in Rome at the time, though it's hard to get a proper feel for the situation in which christianism made so much headway there. Felt a few things were somewhat reminiscent of the state of India today. The following is from Joseph McCabe's 'The Story of Religious Controversy':
(1) Vague similarity. Reminds me a little of votebank politics and a hint of the appeal of the idea of secularism (towards intolerant christianity, I mean, since the Romans were already tolerant of religions in general):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Diocletian and his colleague had abdicated in 304, and Galerius, now promoted to be emperor in the east, with Constantius {Constantine's father} as emperor in the west, prevented the young Constantine from obtaining the rank of Caesar.
I will not drag the reader through the details of the bloody civil wars that followed upon this multiplication of ambitions, but the question of sparing or favoring the Christians of the empire now became, to use modern language, a plank in the political platform. Religious writers affect to see in this a confirmation of their very large figures of the number of Christians. It proves nothing of the kind. In a contest which seems fairly even and uncertain the support of any fanatical minority is useful. Moreover, there was the air of political wisdom which a man might have in proposing to put an end to religious, dissensions in the hard-pressed empire. It would appeal to educated pagans.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(2) Somewhat similar to laws favouring minority religions in India (and reservations based on caste) which are driving a wedge into Indian society:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But Constantine immediately went beyond this declaration of religious neutrality and evinced an attitude of what is now called benevolent neutrality. In the same year, 313, he exempted the Christian clergy from municipal offices. In the Roman administration these local functions, so far from being paid, were extremely costly and onerous to the citizens who were compelled to discharge them, and there was a very general attempt to evade them. Exemption was regarded as so valuable a privilege that the Christian clergy now discovered a remarkable number of "vocations" to their body, and great disorder ensued in the municipal administration, I leave it to the Catholic historian Count Beugnot ("Histoire de la destruction du paganisme" I, 78) to estimate the result:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The effect of this measure was soon felt. On all sides one saw crowds of people make for the churches who were moved not so much by conviction as by the hope of reward; and this first favor granted to Christianity admitted to its bosom guilty passions which had hitherto been foreign to it, passions which had speedy and pernicious consequences. The complaints of the municipal bodies and the disorder that followed in the administration of the provinces soon compelled Constantine to modify the privilege.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This, in fact, was Constantine's invariable experience when he listened to clerical suggestions of legislation in their favor.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(3) Bribery to convert (this was during Constantine's time, because Christian emperors after him issued severe decrees to persecute the Romans of the Old Religion):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From the first Constantine had, apart from his unsuccessful decrees, showered wealth and privileges upon the Church. A stream of gold flowed from the palace, and new churches, of a more attractive nature, began to rise. At court and in the army the best way, if not the only way, to secure promotion was to become convinced by the brilliant evidence of the religion. Even ordinary citizens were rewarded with a baptismal robe and a piece of gold. Villages were raised to the rank of cities if all their inhabitants exchanged Jupiter for Christ. In ten years imperial gold had done more than the blood of all the martyrs, the miracles of all the saints, and the arguments of all the apologists.
Except that wealth continued to reach the Roman clergy, the progress of the Church in the west was now suspended. The city of Constantinople was dedicated in 330. The world had at least a Christian metropolis; and it was a superb city. Already, as I said, more than three fourths of the Christians were in the ignorant east, and they were now encouraged to attack pagan temples and openly ventilate their scorn. Few pagans could get advancement in the east. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->