The Empire And The Imperial Stat

In the period extending from the accession of Constantine (311 or 324) to

the death of Theodosius the Great (395), the characteristic features of

the Church's organization took definite form, and its relations to the

secular authorities and the social order of the Empire were defined. Its

constitution with its hierarchical organization of clergy, of courts, and

synods, together with its intimate union, at least in the East, with th

imperial authority, became fixed (§ 72). As the Church of the Empire, it

was under the control and patronage of the State; all other forms of

religion, whether pagan or Christian, schismatical or heretical, were

severely repressed (§ 73). The Christian clergy, as officials in this

State Church, became a class by themselves in the society of the Empire,

not only as the recipients of privileges, but as having special functions

in the administration of justice, and eventually in the superintendence of

secular officials and secular business (§ 74). By degrees the Christian

spirit influenced the spirit of the laws and the popular customs, though

less than at first sight might have been expected; the rigors of slavery

were mitigated and cruel gladiatorial sports abandoned (§ 75). Meanwhile

popular piety was by no means raised by the influx of vast numbers of

heathen into the Church; bringing with them no little of their previous

modes of thought and feeling, and lacking the testing of faith and

character furnished by the persecutions, they lowered the general moral

tone of the Church, so that Christians everywhere were affected by these

alien ideas and feelings (§ 76). The Church, however, endeavored to raise

the moral tone and ideals and to work effectively in society by care for

the poor and other works of benevolence, and in its regulation of

marriage, which began in this period to be a favorite subject of

legislation for the Church's councils (§ 76). In monasticism this striving

against the lowering forces in Christian society and for a higher type of

life most clearly manifested itself, and, beginning in Egypt, organized

forms of asceticism spread throughout the East and toward the end of the

period to the West as well (§ 78). But monasticism was not confined to the

private ascetic. The priesthood, as necessarily presenting an example of

higher moral life, began to be touched by the ascetic spirit, and in the

West this took the form of enforced clerical celibacy, though the custom

of the East remained far less rigorous (§ 79). In presenting these lines

of development, it is at times convenient to pass beyond the exact bounds

of the period, so that the whole subject may be brought together at this

point of the history.