Union of
Church and State
page
l 1 l 2 l
- 2 -
What
form did this government patronage
take under Constantine and later
rulers?
Immunities,
privileges, and certain judicial
functions for the clergy, and gifts,
endowments, and financial support for
the church; first on a basis of
equality with the priesthood and
temples of paganism, then on
preferred basis, and finally the
exclusion of all except Catholic
orthodoxy.
What
kinds of religious legislation united
church and state?
Laws granting
privileges and patronage, and those
enforcing church dogmas. Practices,
or disciplinary decrees, or
suppressing paganism and heresy.
Note –
Constantine’s earliest Christian
legislation “exempted the
Christian clergy from military and
municipal duty (March, 313);
abolished various customs and
ordinances offensive to the
Christians (315); facilitated the
emancipation of Christian slaves
(before 316); legalized bequests to
catholic churches (321); enjoined the
civil observance of Sunday, though
not as dies Domini [Lord’s day],
but as dies Solis [the Sun’s
day], and in company with an
ordinance for the regular consulting
of the haruspex [soothsayer]
(321).” –Philip Schaff, The
History of the Christian Church (Scribners,
1902 ed.), Vol. 3, p. 31. For Sunday
legislation see the following
reading.
State
Supervision
How did Constantine
initiate state supervision of the
church?
Having achieved
political unity in the empire, he
sought to gain church unity through
church councils.
Note - The first
ecumenical, or general, council of
Nicaea, in 325, was called and
presided over by Constantine.
“The ecumenical councils,”
says Schaff, “have only an
ecclesiastical significance, but bear
also a political or
state-church character. The very name
refers to the empire. The Christian
Graeco-Roman emperor is
indispensable to an ecumenical
council in the ancient sense of the
term; its temporal head and it
legislative strength. Upon this
Byzantine precedent, and upon the
example of the kings of Israel, the
Russian Czars and the Protestant
princes of Germany, Scandinavia, and
England – be it just or unjustly
– build their claim to a similar
and still more extended supervision
of the church in their
dominions.” –Ibid., pp.
334, 335.
What
were the principle questions
discussed at Nicaea?
First the Arian
controversy; next, the date for
Easter.
Note – “It
appears that the churches of the
Syria and Mesopotamia continued to
follows the custom of the Jews, and
celebrated Easter on the
fourteenth day of the moon, whether
falling on Sunday or not. All the
other churches observed that
solemnity on Sunday only, viz.: those
of Rome, Italy, Africa, Lydia, Egypt,
Spain, Gaul and Britain; and all
Greece, Asia, and Pontus.”
– Isaac Boyle, Historical
View of the Council of Nice (1836
ed.), p. 23. By this council Easter was
fixed on the Sunday immediately
following the full moon which was
nearest after the vernal equinox.
What does Neander
say of the securing of religious
laws?
“In this way, the
church received help from the state
for the furtherance of her
ends.”
- General History
of the Christian Religion and the
Church (Torrey translation), 1852
ed.), Vol. 2, p. 301.
Note – In this
way the church and state were united.
In this way the church gained control
of the civil power, which she later
used as a means of carrying on most
bitter and extensive persecutions. In
this way she denied Christ and the
power of godliness, and denied that
the civil power should be exerted to
compel men to serve God, as the
church should dictate.
What did Augustine,
the father of the Christian
theocratic, or church-and-state
theory, teach concerning it?
“Who
doubts but what it is better to be
led to God by instruction, than by
fear of punishment or affliction? But
because the former, who will be
guided only by instruction, are
better, the others are still not to
be neglected. Many, like bad
servants, must be reclaimed to their
master by the rod of temporal
suffering, ere they can attain to
this highest state of religious
development.’” –
Ibid., pp. 214, 215.
Lord, in humble, sweet
submission.
Here we meet to follow
Thee,
Trusting in Thy great
salvation,
Which alone can make
us free.
Naught have we to
claim as merit,
All duties we can do
Can no crown of life
inherit;
All the praise to Thee
is due.
- Robert T. Daniel.
page l 1 l 2 l
- 2 -
