What was the role of the Roman Catholic church in the age of the Christian Roman Empire 312-590?

Answer 1

A:

Strictly speaking, there was as yet no Roman Catholic Church during the period 312-590 CE, as the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches had not yet split. On a historic view, the Roman Catholic Church (or Catholic Church) as we know it today came into being following the Great Schism of 1054. The Christian faith was technically illegal until the Edict of Toleration issued by Galerius in 311 CE, although for the most part Christians had always been free to worship openly and even establish prominent churches.

In the early decades of the fourth century, the Greek-speaking Christians ofthe east greatly outnumbered the Latin-speaking Christians concentrated in and around Rome and Carthage in North Africa. Emperor Constantine considered himself leader of the Church, just as the emperors had traditionally been supreme pontiff of the pagan religion. The pagan title 'Pontifex Maximus', held by the emperors, gradually came to refer to the Christian religion. The bishop of Rome had long sought to exercise primacy in the Church, but the eastern view was an equality of the five patriarchates in Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople.

In 380, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the Empire's official religion, defining this in terms of the doctrine taught by the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria (with no mention of Constantinople). In 381 the third canon of the Council of Constantinople decreed that "the Bishop of Constantinople shall have the privileges of honour after the Bishop of Rome, because it is new Rome."

By the sixth century the Bishop of Constantinople had assumed the title of 'Ecumenical Patriarch', leading to the concept that here, and here alone, was a truly universal patriarchate. Meanwhile, Rome was staking its own claim to leadership of the Christian Church. Instead of equality of the five patriarchates, the Church was developing a bipolar rivalry between Rome and Constantinople.

Catholic AnswerIt's just Catholic, not Roman Catholic. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the official Catholic Church.

This is a tremendous period in the Church, in A.D. 312, the Church was still, technically illegal, in 324 Constantine attained sole power in the Roman Empire, but in A.D. 313 he had legalized Christianity and public worship was allowed. In 476 there was no longer a Roman emperor and a barbarian had taken his place and the "dark ages" (so named by seculars and protestants) had arrived. In A.D. 590, Pope Saint Gregory the Great had been elected to the papal tiara. This was truly the age of faith.

For a good background on how Rome came to be the head of the Christian Church, please read Dr. Taylor Marshall's The Eternal City Rome & the Origins of Catholic Christianity. For a brief overview of this period, pick up Dr. Diane Moczar's What Every Catholic Wants to Know Catholic History from the Catacombs to the Reformation. For an exhaustive survey of the history of this era, please pick up vol. 2 of A History of Christendom, by Dr. Warren H. Carroll, entitled The Building of Christendom.

Basically, the Church came out of the catacombs, converted the Empire, and ended up, for lack of any one else to do it, ruling the Roman Empire. In this period, she dealt with the Arian Crisis and the Monophysite crisis.

She also produced any number of great saints and doctors of the Church, along with great monks, and the monastic movement in turn produced great saints, like Saints Jerome, Basil, and John Chrysostom. At the end of the fourth century (A.D. 369) Pope Damasus convened the Council of Rome, which gave the world the Christian Bible, established the Nicene Creed as the standard of faith, and anathematized the Arians.

In 417 Pope Innocent anathematized Pelagius and Celestius, in A.D. 452 St. Leo the Great saved Rome from the Huns.

During this period some of the greatest saints that ever graced our Church lived, the great Fathers of the Church: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Saint Ambrose (340-97), Saint Athanasius (297-373), Saint Basil the Great (329-379). There were also some stunning heresies that were put down in this era, leading to the infallible definitions by Councils and the Popes on the necessity of grace, and the attributes of the Mother of God.

Finally, in 496 Clovis, the King of the Franks, was baptized, and the nation of France, the "eldest daughter of the Church" was born. By the election of Pope Saint Gregory the Great in A.D. 590 marks the end of this period in Church history and the beginning of the Catholic Empire, the "Holy Roman Empire".