Mavi Boncuk |
Legally tolerated in 313, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire in 323. In 325, at the great council held at Nicaea and attended by bishops from all over the eastern Mediterranean, its basic doctrines were formulated and the canon of its sacred books fixed.
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The Church was, in fact, the only unifying force in that desolate age, since the invading barbarians were in very many cases converted to the new faith and paid homage if not to a common Emperor, at least to a common Saviour. It was natural therefore, as St Augustine’s words testify, that the Church (and especially the Church of Rome) should see herself as in many ways the heir of the imperial ideal. This is clear from such details as the title assumed by the popes—Pontifex Maximus—and the organization of its territory into sees and dioceses closely coinciding with the old Roman provinces and districts.
But the Church, even in the 4th century, spoke with a divided voice. In administration, Constantinople and the East by no means always acknowledged the primacy of Rome; while in doctrine the Arian heresy, settled to the satisfaction of the orthodox at Nicaea, continued to flourish in other parts of the world. The Gothic kingdom in north Italy, under Theodoric, professed Arianism, and the earliest Christian buildings at his capital Ravenna were built for an Arian form of worship. When Justinian (or rather his general Belisarius) recaptured it in 540, some of the old features (for instance, mosaics showing Theodoric and his court) were removed and replaced. The old Arian baptistry was allowed to remain, but a new one was built in addition to it, now known as the Baptistry of the Orthodox.
SOURCE
Legally tolerated in 313, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire in 323. In 325, at the great council held at Nicaea and attended by bishops from all over the eastern Mediterranean, its basic doctrines were formulated and the canon of its sacred books fixed.
The Church was, in fact, the only unifying force in that desolate age, since the invading barbarians were in very many cases converted to the new faith and paid homage if not to a common Emperor, at least to a common Saviour. It was natural therefore, as St Augustine’s words testify, that the Church (and especially the Church of Rome) should see herself as in many ways the heir of the imperial ideal. This is clear from such details as the title assumed by the popes—Pontifex Maximus—and the organization of its territory into sees and dioceses closely coinciding with the old Roman provinces and districts.
But the Church, even in the 4th century, spoke with a divided voice. In administration, Constantinople and the East by no means always acknowledged the primacy of Rome; while in doctrine the Arian heresy, settled to the satisfaction of the orthodox at Nicaea, continued to flourish in other parts of the world. The Gothic kingdom in north Italy, under Theodoric, professed Arianism, and the earliest Christian buildings at his capital Ravenna were built for an Arian form of worship. When Justinian (or rather his general Belisarius) recaptured it in 540, some of the old features (for instance, mosaics showing Theodoric and his court) were removed and replaced. The old Arian baptistry was allowed to remain, but a new one was built in addition to it, now known as the Baptistry of the Orthodox.
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