Church
Well before the christian church turned thier eyes to world domination they turned inward and began to change the things and ideals that they belived.The so-called "Arian Controversy" was initially an argument between two men, Athanasius and Arius. Athanasius authored an exalted Christology, and Arius reacted against it. Then two bishops, Alexander,Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, in (312-328) in support of his secretary Athanasius, and Eusebius of Nicomedia in defense of the exiled Arius, transformed what might have remained a minor Egyptian theological debate into an ecumenical controversy. The term "Arian heresy" was coined by Alexander at a time when it was neither Arian nor heresy, but a widely-held set of traditional beliefs. Alexander said Arius had started something that was spreading through Christianity, but what was actually spreading was a reaction against what he did to Arius.
In the year (325) the early church leaders, with the secular blessing of Constantine, gathered at Nicaea to change and formulate church Law
The council met in the large hall of an imperial palace. Bishop Hosius presided. Constantine opened the proceedings by telling the bishops that they had to come to some agreement on the questions dividing them. He said, "Division in the church is worse than war." He obviously intended to govern Christianity the same way Roman Emperors had traditionally governed the pagan religions, as the Pontifex Maximus (highest priest). "He listened patiently to the debates, moderated the violence of contending parties, and himself joined in the argument." [Eusebius] (1)
and the Nicaean Creed is still recitied by church followers every Sunday. Constantine chose the city of Byzantium as the new captial of the empire later renamed Constantinople (330AD). Rome had a large temple erected to sol Invictus on the Agrippae an its dedication day was Dec.25th. During his reign he had his son Crispus executed on a false charge of attempted seduction made by his wife the empress Fausta whom Constantine later steamed her to death in a bath. Fear of judgement in the afterlife led Constsntine to be baptized on his deathbed by Eusebius of Nicomedia (337), and his eulogy was delivered by Eusebius of Caesarea, both of whom were "Arians". Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians, made Christianity legal and strongly supported it, but he did not impose it on the empire. He convened the Council of Nicea and initially endorsed the results, but he soon changed his mind about Athanasius and Arius. The Empire was divided between his three sons:Constantius ruled in Gaul, Constans in Italy, and Constantine II became the Emperor of the East. (341) Constantius prohibited public sacrifices to the pagan gods.Constantius II (337-361) found it prudent to change the celebration of the birth of Jesus from the traditional date Jan. 6 to Dec. 25 to match the winter solstice when the earth is farthest away from the sun "Birth of the Sun or Son" .
354 Constantius ordered the closing of some pagan temples and prescribed death for those who sacrificed in public. However, many pagan temples and rites were permitted to survive. Between (325-360) 10 different versions of the Nicaean Creed had been written. 360 Declaration of Establishment. Constantius declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This was an orthodox Christianity. Neither Nicene nor "Arian", it was a consensus worked out by a dozen councils of bishops, in the East and the West, over the previous nineteen years.
362 Trinity and Creed. Athanasius appeared by night in the church at Alexandria . His sudden appearance caused great astonishment, for although he was thought to be somewhere in Upper Egypt, he had concealed himself in the house of a holy virgin in Alexandria. He promptly convened and led a small Synod of bishops who disagreed with the recently established orthodoxy. They approved the Athanasian Creed, in which God is defined as one substance (substantia) in three persons (persona, an actor's face mask) -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This was when and how the Holy Spirit was made into a person and promoted to the Godhead: "They confessed that the Holy Ghost is of the same substance as the Father and the Son, and they made use of the term 'Trinity'. (2)
Church historians still maintain that Arius tried to strip the mystery out of the Holy Trinity, but Arius died before Athanasius defined the Trinity. I believe that Athanasius made Christian theology mysterious by the paradoxical assertion: "Three equals One." I still don't know why he made the Holy Spirit a person equal to God, but he previously said, "Unless the people believe Jesus is God, paganism will triumph," so I think he probably defined the Trinity for a political purpose. Also the trinity is a triangle, three in one, three sides to the most holy ancient pryamid or starway to heaven. Being this Athanasius was from egypt and had access to the libaray of Alexandria he probally understood the evolution of monothiesm to some extent and wished to inject a subliminial abstract in the trinity
The Emperor Theodosius's (379-395) reign marks the beggining of the end of a united roman empire and the acendesion of the Roman Catholic Church.With being state sponsered since only 313 the church has unified the Hierarchical Structure of religious and political organization. Gathering secular power along with spirtiual submission of the empire the competing religions stood no chance of survivual.Theodosius being born into a christian familiy was in the 2-3 generation of protected status.The expansion of the church was seen as his duty to convert all to his " and the church's" rightious beliefs.
"It is our desire that all the various nation which are subject to our clemency and moderation should continue to the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of divine condemnation, and second, the punishment that our authority, in accordance with the will of heaven, shall decide to inflict".(3)
By this edict, Theodosius reversed the policy of his predecessors, from tolerance to intolerance of religious diversity. The last sentence was a declaration of war that pre-justified religious persecution as the will of God. Here, then, is the original charter of the inquisitions, the crusades, and the burning of heretics all over Europe. The next time we see tolerance of religious diversity proclaimed as official state policy is 1300 years later, in Pennsylvania.
The Trinitarian formula imposed by the Edict of 380 is not the Nicene Creed of 325; it is the Athanasian Creed of 362. Thus, overnight, Theodosius made Athanasian heresy orthodox and the current orthodox faith "Arian" heresy. Four dogmas of subsequent Catholic orthodoxy were authored by Athanasius and imposed by Theodosius: the Incarnation, Trinity, Creed, and Canon of the New Testament. Thus, from 380 onward, and in all retroactive re-labeling, "Nicene" means "Athanasian" and "Arian" means "not Athanasian."
In the period between Constantine and Theodosius, neither the emperor nor any of his officials dictated the results of a church council . But needless to say, the bishops at this council continued to do what Theodosius told them. They ignored all the councils that disagreed with Athanasius, endorsed his full deification of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and condemned all other forms of Christianity including the current orthodoxy that was established throughout the Empire twenty-one years earlier.(4)
The emperor enacted a law, prohibiting heretics from holding churches, from giving public instructions in the faith, and from conferring ordination on bishops or others. Some of the heterodox were expelled from the cities and villages, while others were disgraced and deprived of the privileges enjoyed by other subjects of the empire.(5)
382 Gratian reversed his own policy of tolerance and went along with Theodosius. He canceled state support of all non-Christian religions, terminated payments by imperial or municipal treasuries for their ceremonies, vestal virgins or priests, and confiscated lands belonging to temples. He removed from the Roman Senate "that statue of the goddess Victory which Augustus had placed there in 29 BC and before which twelve generations of senators had taken their vows of allegiance to the emperor." (6)
388 Theodosius sent his agents through Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, with orders to destroy pagan temples and break up their membership associations. Here again, he implemented his policies by destroying organizations and eliminating the ability to transmit doctrines. This tactic was successful. It destroyed the 4000 year old Egyptian religion so thoroughly the language was lost. No one could read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics for 1400 years, until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone (1799) and the difficult re-translation work of Jean-Francios Champollion. 390 Theodosius closed the Oracle of Delphi. This ancient Greek shrine, sacred to Apollo, had been operating continuously for 1500 years. It has not been reopened. 390 Theodosius ordered the slaughter of about 7000 people at Thessalonica, to punish the city for an uprising. Bishop Ambrose wrote a letter chastising him severely, refused to hold worship services in his presence, and stood in his way when he tried to enter the church -- whereupon Theodosius did public penance. This episode established the threat of excommunication which popes and bishops used to control emperors and kings for more than 1100 years, until King Henry VIII declined to be coerced. In 1534 he had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy which made the King, not the Pope, the head of the Church of England. 391 Theodosius refused to restore the statue of Victory in the Roman Senate. He issued laws making pagan sacrifices, omens, and witchcraft punishable offenses.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says: "Theodosius stands out as the destroyer of heresy and paganism, as the last sovereign of the undivided empire." But he weakened the empire by alienating vast segments of the populace, and his will divided the empire between his sons, thus splitting it permanently. His eleven year old son Honorius became Emperor of the West, and his eighteen year old son Arcadius became Emperor of the East. They both held the same religious views as their father and continued to enforce his policies -- and so did their children after them. Theodosius institutionalized religious persecution by Christians. He initiated and waged a culture war to make his own sect the State Church of the Roman Empire. Any objective view of Western civilization before and after his reign clearly shows that it marks the end of antiquity and the beginning of the dark ages. And now I know that his Edict of 380 was the dividing line, the watershed, between what Christianity was and what it became.
The Papacy was officially established in 444 by the emperor Valentinian III(423-455). He gave the Bishop of Rome authority over all other churches in the Western Empire. Prior to that time, it is not appropriate to refer to a Bishop of Rome as The Pope.The fragmentation of the christian church is illustrated by this photo.In the 16th century Martin Luther(1483-1546) of Germany posted 95 theses to a door of a church on october 31st 1517 to protest the catholic churchs sale of "indulgences" which were written receipts granting forgivness from sin. he started the Reformation movement which gave birth to Protestantism.(7)The Spanish Inquisition of the late medieveal peroid was a institution used frequently to confiscate rich estates of noblemen and to denounce political rivals in spanish politics.Protestants,"witiches",Jews,and muslims were also burned as" heretics" of the true faith.The Christians created the Crusades.These so called "holy wars" to free ancient cannan of islamic civilization was a series of disasters.
The Hierarchical Religious Structure of the Christian church created cruel wars and inistutions to consolidate control of civilian populations.And the depature from literal scripture into complex rituals and dogma based laws is the Generational Evolution of several unified Roman state religions into one Superstructural Religion.In 2004 the Christian religions claim to have 2 billion followers or one third of the Earth under thier direct and indirect influnece.
