09-12-2008, 02:40 PM
There was another strand to Greco-Roman religion, separate from the public state cults, that of the "mysteries." The most respectable of these cults was that of Eleusis near Athens. The initiate was offered the prospect of mystical revelation and a very personal entry into a happy afterlife.
In many ways Christianity fit in very well with this established form of worship. However, it was the denial by Christians to participate in public sacrifice and to acknowledge the semi-divine nature of the emperor which offended Roman ideas of civic solidarity and decency.
The tipping point came when the numbers of Christians and their formidable level of organisation (they were effectively a state within a state), and therefore their collective power, within the Empire become so great that they had to be acommodated by the state. Constantine very neatly made this leap, a Christian emperor could call on the "natural support" of his Christian population and the pagans in the population were, in general, less religiously zealous and were far more poorly organised so their opposition could be to some extent discounted.
Constantine also retaineed the semi-divine nature of the imperial position by claiming to be "God's vicegerent on earth" and, indeed, the 13th Apostle.
In many ways Christianity fit in very well with this established form of worship. However, it was the denial by Christians to participate in public sacrifice and to acknowledge the semi-divine nature of the emperor which offended Roman ideas of civic solidarity and decency.
The tipping point came when the numbers of Christians and their formidable level of organisation (they were effectively a state within a state), and therefore their collective power, within the Empire become so great that they had to be acommodated by the state. Constantine very neatly made this leap, a Christian emperor could call on the "natural support" of his Christian population and the pagans in the population were, in general, less religiously zealous and were far more poorly organised so their opposition could be to some extent discounted.
Constantine also retaineed the semi-divine nature of the imperial position by claiming to be "God's vicegerent on earth" and, indeed, the 13th Apostle.
Martin
Fac me cocleario vomere!
Fac me cocleario vomere!
