How did the acceptance of Christianity change life in the Roman Empire?

Answer 1

By the time of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century CE, Christianity is believed to have constituted around ten per cent of the population of the Roman Empire. Had it not been for the support provided by Constantine, and the events of the fourth century, Christianity might well have remained a minor, if important, religion among those of the Roman Empire.

Constantine gave the Christian Church substantial state patronage and made it clear that those of ambition would improve their chances of success by becoming Christians. He began the persecution of the pagan temples and encouraged the Christians in developing a culture of plundering the temples for gain.

Constantine's family members followed him as emperors. Between murdering each other, they helped tighten the grip of Christianity on the empire. In 381, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the state religion and then banned the public worship of the pagan gods, although probably more than half the population were pagans. Within a few centuries, paganism was all but eliminated from the Roman Empire.

Answer 2

Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) tells us that Christianity was 'accepted' in the sense of being tolerated and its principles sometimes even admired, from earliest times. Emperor Philip (244-249) was even rumoured to have been a Christian, a view that some scholars still hold.

Christianity became accepted, in the sense of widespread conversions, in the fourth century, after Emperor Constantine gave the Church state patronage and began the long persecution of the pagan religion. By the end of the century it was, for some, easier and safer to be a Christian than to maintain the old beliefs.

Answer 3

AnswerTaxes were already high by the time Constantine became emperor, but were increased massively, in part to pay for his patronage of the Christian Church, particularly the construction of many magnificent churches to serve the still-small Christian population. Temples were torn down, plundered or defiled, to provide valuable materials for the construction of Christian churches, and the long persecution of pagans got underway. During the fourth century, each succeeding emperor, apart from Julian the Apostate, increased the persecution of the pagan majority.

With his acceptance of Christianity in 380 CE as the official religion of Rome, Emperor Theodosius increased the persecution to a ferocious level. It became a crime, punishable by death, even to look at a pagan statue that had been smashed by the Christian mobs. Of course, the majority soon found it safer to accept Christianity than to continue in their old beliefs. Life in the Roman Empire became characterised by a harsh intolerance such as Christianity had never suffered under the pagan emperors. The Church could control what you think and what you believe. Theodosius, in decreeing Christianity the official religion of empire, defined this as being Christianity as taught by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, thus outlawing all other Christian beliefs. Centuries afterwards, the official Church continued to proclaim as heresy any deviation from its doctrines; and heresy was punishable by death.

Most people today do not even realise that Christianity also grew and prospered in areas outside the reach of the Roman Empire. Here, Christianity was moderate and practised the tolerance and love of fellow-man that it preached. It is a fact of history that those branches of Christianity were overtaken by events in the Islamic world, in China and elsewhere, but they demonstrate that Christianity could also have succeeded in a tolerant, multi-faith society.