More notes on the early church

Exposure

One of the things that we need to realise about the early church is that it provided a radically different outlook on life compared to the culture and beliefs of the ancient world.

On 17th June 1 B.C., a Roman soldier named Hilarion was stationed in the Egyptian port of Alexandria.  He wrote a letter to his wife, saying that he would soon send her some of his pay, asking her to look after their son and reminding her that he has not forgotten her.  He also adds, that if she is pregnant, 'if it be a male, let it be, if it be a female, cast it out.' 

Hilarion was talking about the practice of exposure.  Exposure was when an unwanted baby was left outside, whether on a street corner, in the marketplace, or even at the rubbish dump.  The child might, of course be picked up by other parents who would raise it as their own, killed by animals, die in the elements. or be taken by professional traffickers.

Hilarion's words are shocking to us, but they would not have been shocking at the time.  Even the great philosopher, Aristotle, advised that no deformed child should be reared, but rather exposed.

The early Christians opposed this practice.  After hundreds of years of trying t get this practice banned, a complete ban on killing infants was put in law in A. D. 374.  

Charity

John Dickson asked a professor at Oxford University what she regarded to be Christianity’s most significant contribution to ancient life in the Roman world.  She replied, ‘charity.’  The Christians were notorious for looking after widows, the poor, orphans and orphans.  She also points out that charity was inherited from the Jews, whose Bible (our Old Testament) spoke about care for the ophans, widows, poor and strangers.

The idea of the rich using their money to help the poor was hardly ever practiced in the Roman empire before the Christians.  The poor were thought of as being punished by the gods, or getting what they deserved from how they had lived in a former life.  

In the ancient Roman world humility was viewed as a negative trait.  In the major pagan texts of that time the writers see the great values as justice, courage, wisdom and moderation.  But not love.

The Basiliad, also called the Basileias, was founded by Basil of Caesarea in the late 4th century and is widely regarded as the first public hospital with comprehensive medical and charitable services.  Until that time the rich could hire doctors, and Roman soldiers got hospital services, but there was no free medical care for all until Basil.

More on Constantine

Constantine mostly left pagan religions alone.  He did ban dark magic, that intended to do harm to other people.  He tolerated white forms of magic—those that sought to bless people and crops.  While he recognised that magic was forbidden for the Christian, he saw no harm in pagans practicing it.  He was intolerant, however, of the Jews, who he referred to as ‘Christ-slayers.’  The church in the following centuries would have a terrible record of anti-Semitism.

In the ancient world peasants never got holidays and the elite were often idle.  Constantine mandated a regular day off, Sunday, for everyone.

Constantine ended some of the brutal forms of punishment, like crucifixion and branding criminals on their faces (they were to be branded on their legs and thighs instead).

He excepted churches for tax, so they were able to do more in the way of charity.  He would not allow the wealthy to become priests (in part so that they could not use their association with the church as a loophole to paying tax).

Julian the apostate (332-363)

Julian was born in Constantine in the last years of Constantine’s reign.  He was actually Constantine’s nephew.  Although raised in a Christian home, he abandoned his parents’ faith when he was twenty.  He became a follower of the Greek gods.

When he became emperor, aged thirty, he set about removing the church’s position from society.  He took away the church’s tax exemptions and removed Christians from academic posts.  He revived old pagan temples.  He did not order violent persecution of Christians, but sometimes turned a blind eye towards atrocities committed against them.  He tried to rival the church’s monopoly on charity, by trying to set up charities through pagan temples.  He referred to Christians as “Galileans”, recalling their origins in the backwaters of Palestine, and referred to them as ‘atheists’, because they did not beleive in the ancient gods of Greece and Rome.  He was frustrated that Christianity continued to thrive much due to its charitable works.  He lamented, ‘the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us”.  His pagan charities through the temples never took off.

Julian was hit by an arrow while working towards invading Persia.  One Christian, Theodoret of Antioch, claims that as he lay wounded on the battlefield he clutched his wound ‘filled his hand with blood, flung it into the air and cried, “Thou hast won, O Galilean!”’

His successor, his general Jovian, reversed his anti-Christian policies.

Christianity did not become the state religion of the Roman empire until 380, under Emperor Theodosius.  In 391 Theodosius banned pagan sacrifices and closed many temples.  Public pagan worship was effectively ended.  By the early 400s Christianity was the majority religion, and the only legally supported one.   

Just war

In Augustine’s City of God and other writings, he developed the idea of a ‘Just War.’  A Just War was (1) designed to achieve mutual peace between both sides, (2) was only waged in self-defence or to recover stolen property (3) was to be proportional in response (4) was to be conducted in a way that showed respect for humanity and would avoid the opponent without feeling a sense of being humiliated (5) respected the prisoners of war (rather than execute them).

When did the Patristic Period end?

Dates for the end of the Patristic period range from the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

When did the Roman empire end?

The western part of the Roman empire ended in 476, when a Germanic commander conquered, but the eastern part of the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) continued until 1453, when it fell to the Ottomans (Muslims).