Chapter 4 – Leaders and servants in the 4th-7th centuries

Last chapter we began to see Christianity gain more worldly security and influence. Constantine made Christianity his personal religion and the Empire’s defacto religion in 313 AD. Later, (391) Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire. As the empire dottered into decline, Church leaders began assuming secular powers and secular leaders began assuming church oversight.
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Examples include:

• Ambrose was governor of Milan. When the church overseer died, he assumed the role of overseer to avoid a riot over succession. Emperor Theodosius required him to rebuild an Arian church (a popular form of Gnosticism at the time) that had been burnt. Ambrose refused, excommunicated Theodosius, and made him grovel in sackcloth and ashes for weeks to be readmitted to the church.
• Olympias, the richest young woman in the world at the time didn’t want to marry Theodosius’s cousin, Theodosius confiscated all her wealth. She tricked him into returning it and donated much of it to the church.
• Secular officials made John Chrysostom overseer in Constantinople thinking that they could control the church through a debt of loyalty. This backfired because of Chrysostom’s piety. John C. demanded that priests remain chaste and condemned the Emperess’ lifestyle. She donated a large gift to the church to shut him up but he thanked her for the gift and kept on preaching.

In Chapter Two we saw that Gnosticism was a popular form of error because it played to people’s longing for something different. Something simpler and more spiritual than the awful, hard life they faced. Some individuals, and later groups of people, began choosing ascetic lifestyles, and monasticism was born. As the Empire declined, the monks played a large role in preserving Christian tradition.

• One important early monk was Jerome, the translator of the Vulgate bible (AD 405). Jerome was also the first to propose the idea that Mary remained a virgin all of her life. A later monk, Jovinian, denied that idea and was excommunicated over it.
• Scholastica and Benedict destroyed a pagan altar and built a monastery. Benedict’s rules for running a monastery became the standard.
• Gregory was a powerful politician but became a monk and helped plague victims. His form of plainsong (Gregorian chant) became the standard. He also came up with the idea of purgatory.
• Augustine of Hippo was a secular scholar, and a cult member, who converted and became one of Christianity’s most influential thinkers. He opposed Pelagianism (the idea that it is possible for people to be holy on their own effort) but he also preached that the Bible was all allegory and symbolism with vast hidden meaning.
• Hilda of Whitby was one of the most influential religious leaders in Celtic Ireland.

In summary: As the empire declined, the Church and the Secular Empire began mixing in unhealthy ways. The Empire became the lapdog of the Church (e.g. Theodosius and Ambrose) and the Church began getting distracted by inessentials (e.g. purgatory, lifelong virginity of Mary, etc…). Everyone became distracted over who was going to serve and who was going to lead. A remnant of the church (the monks and nuns) mostly stayed on the right path (as servant-leaders).

Next week – Chapter 5 – Birth of Islam, E. vs. W. Church split, Crusades