What role did Christianity play in the byzantine society?

Answer 1

Christianity was preached and spread around the Roman Empire. It is in the Roman Empire which Christianity, both catholic and orthodox developed. Christianity became the religion of the masses in of this empire in the late 3rd century AD. It was then endorsed by the elites. All emperors after Jovian where Christians. The eastern part of the Roman Empire was the part which saw the development of Orthodox Christianity

Mainstream Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica signed by co-emperors Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II. This made mainstream Christianity (Latin or Western Christianity and Greek or Eastern Christianity) the sole legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. The purpose of the edict was to ban dissident Christian doctrines, which were branded as heretic. Their persecution started soon afterwards. The main target was Arian Christianity, which was popular around the empire.

At that time the Latin/Western church and the Greek/Eastern Church, were the churches of the western and eastern part of the Roman Empire respectively. They were two branches of one church which was called Catholic Church and they both subscribed to the Nicene Creed, a particular interpretation of the trinity and were opposed to alternative interpretation of the trinity. Later these two churches spit and came to be called Catholic and Orthodox respectively.

In the eastern part of the Roman Empire the Orthodox Church continued to develop and emperor Justinian I (reigned 527-565) was one of the most important emperors in the history of the Orthodox Church. He described as a 'nursing father' of the church and put it on a more solid footing, and redefined its structure. He protected the purity of the official church and persecuted dissident Christian sects and paganism. He secured the rights of the church and the clergy and protected and expanded the monastic orders. He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private individuals and to receive annual gits for the state of from taxes and banned the confiscation of monastic property. He gave the canons of the church legal force and issued laws regarding the administration of church property, the elections and rights and obligations of the clergy, the conduct of service and episcopal jurisdiction.

Answer 2

Christianity changed what people thought about the Byzantine society.