LITERATURE.
C. G. DE RnoER : Dissertationes de effectn religionis Christianae in jurisprudentiam Ronianam. Groning. 1776. Maktini : Die Einfuhrung der christl. Religion als Staatsreligion im rom. Reiche durch Constantin. Miinch. 1813. H. O. de MEYSENBruo: De christ. religionis vi et effectn in jus civile. Gott. 1828. C. Riffel (R. C.) : Gesch. Darstollung des Verhiiltnisses zwisclien Kirche u, Staat. Mainz. 1838, vol. L Troplong: De rinHuence du Christianisuie siir le droit civil des Romains. Par. 1843. P. E. Lixd: Christeiulommens intlydelse paa deii socialo forfatning. Kjobonh. 18.52. B. C. Cooper: The Free Church of Ancient Christendom and its Subjugation by Constantine. Lond, 1851 (?)
Comp. also GiBnoN, chap. xx. SciiRoCKn, several sections from vol. y onward. Neander, iii. 273-303. Milman, Anc. CI rist. Book iv. ch. 1
§ 13, NEW POSITION OF THE CHUKCII IN THE aMPIKE. 1)1
§ 13. The New Position' of the Church in the Empire.
The previous chapter has shown us how Christianity gradually supplanted the Grseco-Roman heathenism and became the established religion in the empire of the Csesars. Since that time the church and the state, though frequently jarring, have remained united' in Europe, either on the hierarchical basis, with the temporal power under the tulelage of the spiritual, or on the ciiesaro-papal, with the spiritual power merged in the temporal ; while in the United States of America, since the end of the eighteenth century, the two powers have stood peacefully but independently side by side. The church could now act upon the state ; but so could the state act upon the church ; and this mutual influence became a source of both profit and loss, blessing and curse, on either side.
The martyrs and confessors of the first three centuries, in their expectation of the impending end of the world and their desire for the speedy return of the Lord, had never once thought of such a thing as the great and sudden change, which meets us at the beginning of this period in the relation of the Roman state to the Christian church. Tertullian had even held the Christian profession to be irreconcilable with the office of a Roman emperor.' ^Nevertheless, clergy and people very soon and very easily accommodated themselves to the new order of things, and recognized in it a reproduction of the theocratic constitution of the people of God under the ancient covenant. Save that the dissenting sects, who derived no benefit from this union, but were rather subject to persecution from the state and from the established Catholicism, the Donatista for an especial instance, protested against the intermeddling of the temporal power with religious concerns.* The heathen,
' Apologeticus, c. 21 : " Sed et Csesares credidissent, si aut Ctesares non esaent BJBCulo necessarii, aut si et Christiani potuissent esse Caesares."
' Thus the bishop Donatus of Carthage in 347 rejected the imperial commissioners, Paulus and Macarius, with the exclamation : " Quid est imperatori cum ecclo eia ? " See Optatus Milev. : De schismate Donat, !. iii. c. 3. The Donatists, however, were the first to invoke the imperial intervention in their controversies, and woulc doubtless have spoken very ditferently, had the decision turned in their faror.
92 TnmD pkriod. a.d. 311-590.
wlio noTv came over in a mass, Lad all along been ai^.eustomed to a union of politics with religion, of the imperial with the fiacerdotal dignity. They oould not imagine a state without some cultus, wliaterer might be its name. And as heathenism had outlived itself in the empire, and Judaism with its na- ' jiin\ exclusiveness and its stationary character was totally disqualified, Christianity must take the throne.
The change was as natural and inevitable as it was great. 'When Constantino planted the standard of the cross upon the forsaken temples of the gods, lie but followed the irresistible current of history itself. Christianity had already, without a stroke of sword or of intrigue, achieved over the false religion the internal victory of spirit over matter, of truth over falsehood, of faith over superstition, of the worship of God over idolatry, of morality over corruption. Under a three hundred years' oppression, it had preserved its irrej^ressible moral vigor, and abundantly earned its new social position. It could not possibly continue a despised sect, a homeless child of the wilderness, but, like its divine founder on the third day after his crucifixion, it must rise again, take the reins of the world into its hands, and, as an all-transforming principle, take state, science, and art to itself, to breathe into them a higher life and consecrate them to the service of God. The church, of course, continues to the end a servant, as Christ himself came not to be ministered unto, but to minister ; and she must at all times suffer persecution, outwardly or inwardly, from the ungodly world. Yet is she also the bride of the Son of God, therefore of royal blood ; and she is to make her purifying and sanctifying influence felt upon all orders of natural life and all forms of human society. And from this influence the state, of course, is not excepted. Union with the state is no more necessarily a profanation of holy things than union with science and art, which, in fact, themselves proceed from God, and must Bubserve his glory.
On the other hand, the state, as a necessary and divine histitution for the protection of person and property, for the administration of law and justice, and for the promotion of earthly weal, could not possibly pei'sist forever in her hostility