The Origins of Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire 111In the course of the third century, the Christians
had become a political force in the eastern half of the
empire. No longer a church of the weak and helpless, it
included people of great influence in Diocletian’s ad-
ministration, some of whom were thought capable of
fraud and violence. In 303 Diocletian became con-
vinced that they were plotting against him and
launched the last and most savage of the persecutions.
He was encouraged in this by Galerius, whose tenure in
the east had convinced him that the Christians were a
menace to imperial government as a whole. When Dio-
cletian abdicated, Galerius continued to pursue anti-
Christian policies until his own death in 311 and
bequeathed them to his successor, Maximin Daia. Con-
stantine perhaps adopted Christianity because he and
his then-ally Licinius needed Christian support in their
successful struggle with Maximin Daia. However, no
direct evidence of this is available, and little reason ex-
ists to suppose that Christian support affected the final
outcome of these imperial struggles.
In any case, Constantine’s adoption of Christianity
changed the basic character of the church. Though pa-
ganism continued to be tolerated, Christianity now had
many of the characteristics of an official religion. Homes
and catacombs were abandoned as centers of worship in
favor of the basilica, an oblong structure of the sort used
for Roman public assemblies (see illustration 6.6). The
new construction—and the clergy itself—was funded in
part with imperial monies, and membership was both a
mark of status and essential for those who wished to
reach the highest levels of the imperial service.
Converts poured in, and Christian principles be-
came the basis for a mass of legislation. Even before his
final victory in 324, Constantine moved to limit the
brutality of official punishments and to expand poor re-
lief. To provide poor women with an alternative to in-
fanticide, the most common and effective method of
birth control in ancient times, arrangements were made
for the care of foundlings. Most measures were benign,
but the sterner side of Christian morality was reflected
in new and savage penalties for adultery, prostitution,
and premarital sex.
Constantine might not have understood the intrica-
cies of Christian theology. As a practical ruler, however,
he knew that doctrinal disputes could lead to political
disorder. He sought from the beginning of his reign to
end the heresies that disturbed the church.
The most important of these involved the Trinity.
By 260 a majority of Christians believed that there was
one God, but that God had three persons—the Father,
the Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit. In the reign of
Constantine, an Alexandrian priest named Arius ad-
vanced the view that Christ was a created being, nei-
ther fully God nor fully man. This called the nature of
Christ’s sacrifice into question, for, if he were not both
fully man and fully God, how could his suffering on the
cross have atoned for the sins of humankind?
The popular interest aroused by this argument is
hard to imagine today, but trinitarian disputes became a
fruitful source of riots and other violence in the cities of
the empire. Arianism may have masked political and re-
gional grievances that owed little to religion. In any
case, Constantine was forced to call another general
meeting of the church. In 325 the Council of Nicaea
decreed that Christ was both fully man and fully God,Illustration 6.5
Monumental Head of the Emperor Constantine.Originally
part of a much larger seated statue, the head alone is more than
eight feet tall and is meant to convey a godlike impression.