It is evident that the organizers of this attempt to stamp out Christianity expected a difierent issue to their campaign of persecution. They were not aware of the strength of conviction which the faith of the Christians had developed. The edict hints at the Roman belief in ancestral religions. The Imperial objection to Christianity is given in the words ' a various society from the dili'erent provinces,' whilst the closing sentence about ' respect to the established laws' is a reminder of the view which States have only reluctantly abandoned — viz. that religious freedom is fraught with danger to the State. In 313 Constantino became sole Emperor of the West and issued the Edict of Milan — the Magna Carta of re- * Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ii.' 132 1.
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ligious lilifTt}'. All subjects of the Empire were granted complelc freedom of worship. But this universal toleration was not of lon^ duration. The traditional iloetrine in regard to the presup- positions of a united Empire reasserted itself, and Constantius ado|ited Christianity as the hiiiierial religion and at the same time reduced paganism to a religio illieita. The adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Emi>ire was a great triumph for the gosjiel, hut there are victories which are as disastrous as defeats. The Church had to pay a heavy price for promotion. Tlie Emperor denuiniled and obtained from the Christian Church the homage and submission which his predecessors enjoyed in the case of paganism. The friendshi|i of Rome was fraught with greater danger than its enmity. The Church lost its freedom and its power. The subsequent persecution of paganism was not due to the intolerance of the Church. One of the out- standing motives which actuated the Emjure in its attempt to stamp out Christianity led to its ellorts to suppress paganism. Imperial unity demanded ecclesiastical uniformity. During the reign of Theodosius the Great, paganism was linally abolished by a series of enactments similar to those adopted by previous Emperors in their etl'orts to suppress Christianity. But the abolition of paganism by Theodosius was as unreal as the Cfitablishnient of Christianity by Constantius. Keligious reforms which emanate from the throne are futile ; they are genuine only as they originate in the heart of a people. The spirit of paganism lived on when the forms and Institutions of the Christian religion had been universally adopted. Yet all ancient governments — and some modern — have acted on the assumption that ecclesiastical uniformity alone produces and g\iarantees national unity. In the most progressive European countries it is acceiited that political unity is compatible with full religious freedom.
We have emphasized the fact that Eome perse- cuted for political reasons. It was the safety and stability of the Empire that weighed with her Emperors. But it is necessary to guard against a common misconception. Tlie Empire was not an irreligious organization that opposed the spread of religion. It possessed its official religion ; and it was necessary for those in authority, in spite of the prevalent scepticism, more ati'ected than real, to provide for the belief which prevailed, that the gods existed and that they possessed unlimited power for good and evil. It was the Imperial view, strengthened by the innate conservatism of human nature in religous matters, that the existing religious situation was better adapted and even essential to the social and poIiti(-al needs of the Empire. Rome did not classif.y religions as true or false, but as conducive or inimical to the interests of the Empire.
8. Persecution of heretics by the Roman Church. — For several centuries after the adoption of Cliristianity as the Imperial religion the ' Holy Roman Empire' was united in its religious life. Western Europe was governed by a ' theocracy ' ; the Church was supreme. Uniformity of thought and worship prevailed tlirougliout the civilized world. But it was the uniformity of death ; there was as little living intellectuality as there was vital religion. ' Catholicism was then,' writes Lecky,' perfectly in accordance with the intellectual wants of Europe. It was not a tyranny, for the intellectual latitude it permitted was fully com- mensurate with the wants of the people. . . . As long as a church is so powerful as to form the Intellectual condition of the age, to supply the standing-point from which every tpiestion is viewed, its authority will never be disputed.' * Lecky * Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii. p. 31.
thinks only of the intellectual situation in Europe. But the same ex]danation applies to the religious State; Catholiidsm was in accordance with the rt^iV^s- oH.v needs of the period. The Renaissance was the intellectual awakening of Europe, and the Reforma- tion was the awakening-of the conscience of Europe, and the former was due to the iliscovery of the literature of Greece and Rome as the latter resulted from a study of the Gospels and Epistles. l'"or centuries Western Euro[ie had embraced the intel- lectual system, and, of course, tln^ religious customs which the Chmcdi permitted. Rome dictated to the understanding no less tlian to the conscience of the West. Towards the end of the 11th cent, there were signs of awakening dissatisfaction with both the religion and the creed of the Church. But the way of the innovator was hard. By the eml of the century the Church had .attained the zenith of its intluence, and before the middle of the I3th cent. Home had mainifacturcd her nuichine for the repression of heresy in the form of the Inquisition (A.D. 1233), and the period of persecution had been already inaugurated by Innocent III. in the persecution of the Albigenses in the south of France (12'20). All rulers were required to take an oath that they would ex- terminate from their dominions all those who were branded as heretics by the Church, and the uni- versal dread of the papal Interdict reduced to abject submission the princes and sovereigns of Western Europe, e.g. King John of England. Statutes against heresy formed integral parts of the legal system of all Western States, e.g. ' De lueretico comburendo' in England (1400-1676). We have observed that the persecution of Christianity by the Roman Empire was mainly motived by political considerations. In ancient Empires the central authority was absolute, and there was no sphere or activity which lay outside or beyond the law of the realm. It was suspected that the enjoyment of religious freedom would bring about a desire for civil liberty and tlius the solidaritj' of the Eni|)ire would be disturbed, and its unity imperilled. The leaven of liberty once introduced into the life of a people would gradually spread and ultimately ati'ect the whole mass. Home persecuted the Church because religious uniformity was essential to the unity of the Empire, and paganism was favourable, w-hilst Christianity was inimical to its stability and safety. When Christianity became a religio licita measures were adopted to keep in check, through Imperial supervision, its individual- istic and anarchical tendencies. After the estab- lishment of Christianity Koine crushed paganism as it had attempted to suppress Christianity, in order to safeguard the unity of the Empire, and according to the political creed of the age there was no reliable unity without uniformity. Rome's policy was the suppression of political insubordina- tion. The Church, on the other hand, jjersecuted on religious grounds. Her policy was the repression of heresy. The Church had formulated her theo- logical creed and had elaborated her religious cult, and neither theology nor cult was subject to re- vision or innovation. Lecky thus accounts for the adoption of persecution by the Church : 'If men believe with an intense and realising faith that their own view of a disputed question i.s true beyond all possibility of mistake, if they further believe that those who adopt other views will be doomed by the Almighty to an eternity of misery which, with the same moral disposition but with a dillerent belief, they would have escaped, these men v:ill, sooner or later, persecute to the full extent of their power.'* Persecutions on purely religious grounds originate in the doctrine of ex- clusive salvation, but it is not true that the Church " Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii. p. I.