Christianity During The Late Antique Period Of The Roman Empire

During the Late Antique period of the Roman Empire, Christianity was able to flourish. Integrating itself within the government, and with the rule of the emperors themselves, allowed the religion to spread quickly throughout society and to be given large amounts of authority. In addition, debates regarding different doctrines helped to create a relationship between orthodoxy and the government. These changes can be seen in how Christianity saw shifts in how it interacted with the empire both in regards to its coexistence with paganism and in its public structures. Christianity firmly established itself within the empire during Late Antiquity and it altered itself to fit its new position.
Initially, Christianity drew the largest amount of support
Early on, many high ranking officials converted out of a necessity to ingratiate themselves with the strongly Christian emperors, who demonstrated declining support of paganism (Maxwell, 850) Consequently, these new Christians would have bestowed similar favor upon those in their employ or within their households, ensuring the cycle continued into the lower classes of society. The support of the emperor would have allowed Christianity to reach vast numbers of people. Moreover, the emperor played a major role in determining the doctrine of Christianity at a time when it was widely debated One of the most pressing issues during the Late Antique period was the nature of Christ. The various ideas concerning Christ’s nature divided Christians, creating many different sects. Arianism, which emphasized Christ’s human nature (Maas, 131), and the Nestorian sect, which refuted that Jesus was the son of God (Maas, 132), were just two of the many beliefs that Christians could hold at the time. In many cases, Church councils were called in order to define proper doctrine. These councils were headed by the reigning emperor and the early councils especially set a precedent for the Church and the imperial
The ability of bishops to preside over legal cases in an episcopal court (Gwyn, 886) was one way for the church to demonstrate its power to the public. Secular courts had to uphold the rulings made in the episcopal courts because “whatever may be adjudged by [episcopal judges] shall be held as sacred” (Maas, 130). Giving Church leaders positions of power, which directly impacted the lives of the citizens, conditioned the public to view these men as figures of authority. The fact that citizens needed to request an episcopal trial (Maas, 129) indicated that a significant portion of the population already viewed Christian officials as influential. Being given authority in this capacity primed Church leaders to take on increasing amounts of power within the workings of the empire. This was seen in the preeminence of the bishops of major cities, such as Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, who were able to wield large amounts of political power (Gwyn, 882-883). Religious officials were even allowed to mediate foreign threats on behalf of the empire; for instance, Leo of Rome’s parley with Attila the Hun or that of Bezabde’s bishop and the Persian shah (Gwyn, 887). These displays of power show that Christianity and its authority was recognized both by the imperial administration as well as by forces outside the empire. All of these duties show how the Church had become