Introduction

This is a study of the fourth century of the Christian era. It was a century of radical changes and much confusion for the adherents of the Christian faith and for their organisation, the Church. These changes and confusion in the first place affected those who lived in the Roman Empire, and they were the majority of all Christians.1 The remaining Christians found themselves in eastern neighbour states such as Persia and Armenia, or among the Visigoths, who settled on the northern defence lines (see Chapter 6, pp. 155-7). Shortly after 300, the Christians in the Roman Empire suffered a general persecution, ordered by the emperors, which was not equally severe in every place. But almost immediately after the persecution had been stopped and a limited tolerance been granted (311), an unexpected process started under the leadership of the victorious emperor Constantine I, bringing the Church official recognition, government support and gradual involvement in social life. From now on, the Church had to reckon with interference from the side of the emperors, which at one time consolidated its position and at another enforced obedience to the theological persuasion the Emperor preferred for his own reasons. In the year 380, this policy came to a head when the two emperors of the eastern and the western parts of the empire decreed that all their subjects should adhere to the orthodox Catholic faith. This decree is rightly considered the hour of birth of Christianity as state religion, rather than the so-called ‘Constantinian turning point’ earlier in the century. But the Christians in the Persian kingdom felt the repercussions of this promotion of their co-religionists under Roman rule, because they were consequently suspected of being the fifth column of Roman imperialism. Armenia preceded the Roman Empire in establishing the Christian faith as the state religion, since this happened at some date before 314.2 The Goths on the Balkans were hostile to Christian penetration from Constantinople until the conversion of their chief in 376. From then on they became politically and militarily associated with the Roman Empire and its culture. The connections of the Roman state with all these neighbours were so direct that the enormous changes in the political and social position of Christianity not

only affected those living under Roman dominion, but also their fellow believers beyond the borders.