mountainman

You can have suspicions in many fields.
We wont go there.

mountainman

The earliest sacraments were the oath taken to the Lord God Caesar when one joined the Roman Army.

Let's not confuse history and theology.

It's time to let go of the fairy stories.

mountainman

Historically there are attestations that it also introduced physical death by execution and torture for the unbelievers and heretics after Nicaea.

It also offered new taxation exceptions for Christian bishops.

Sheshbazzar

There were many advantages to adopting this 'highly attractive proposition' and doctrine. As you point out, that advantage could very well include not having ones head become seperated from ones body, and the additional enticement and advantage of having a bit more jingle in the old purse.

Jaybees

Pagans really had it compratively easy after Xtianity became the state religion. They had no trouble simply adding God, or Jehovah, or Jesus to their pantheon. Saints were also easy substitutes for the old gods. And the ancient beliefs continued to exist virtually unmolested for centuries in the rural contryside or in remote areas. In fact, the word "pagan" is derived from "pagus" meaning rural.

So the evidence is that there was llittle that was equivalent to the earlier persecutions of the Xtians who had refused to regard the Emperor as being divine.

Sheshbazzar

It became a very healthy thing to do. And very unhealthy thing not to do.

Chop! chop! chop! all 'heretics' for the next thousand years. Nope. It certainly wasn't equivalent.

mountainman

Tell that to the magistrates and philosophers of Antioch whom Constantine ordered tortured c.324/325 CE over their religious views.

Tell that to the head of the academy of Plato, Sopater, whom Constantine c.330 CE publically executed.

A massive CONTROVERSY erupted out of the Nicaean Council and swirled its way through generations and centuries.

What was the massive controversy about?

What do the pagans say?

Where do scholars say the pagans disappeared to after Nicaea?



The problem was that Constantine had destroyed the major pagan temples.
He had also prohibited the use of the pagan temples.
The pantheon of gods in their traditional and customary place was OFF LIMITS.


The Manichaeans tried to add Jesus Chrestos to their canon.
Two Christian sources from the 4th century state that:


Why 300 years? Mani lived in the 3rd century.

Scholars have commented that these are two anachronisms.

The Manichaens may therefore have made the Jesus Chrestos claim in the 4th century.

It would not surprise me - they were attempting to ADAPT.



The Saints don't appear until after Athanasius c.360 CE wrote "The Life of Saint Anthony".

The Bones of the Saints and other Unholy Relics Big Business appears commissioned in the later 4th century.

Start with Damasius who renovated the Roman catacombs and promoted "PETER WAS HERE"



"pagani: first appears in christian inscriptions from early 4th century.
"pagani: earliest use in the Law Codes in Codex Theodosius 16.2.18 (c.370)
"pagani: is a word coined by christians -- of the towns and cities.

See Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, p.31

The evidence attested to by Ammianus c.358 CE is that the Christian Emperor Constantius established special tribunals to which pagans from Antioch and Alexandria were dragged to confess their heresy and be tortured and executed on account of their non Christian religious beliefs.

See the thread Auto da fe in the 4th century? in which the attestations in Ammianus are presented. Feel free to provide further info on that thread.

Jaybees

The key word here is "heresy". Xtians have never been averse to persecuting other Xtians who differed even slightly in their variations from whatever the current orthodoxy happened to be.

I don't doubt that intellectual pagans who openly thought (and preached) that Xtianity was absurd would face dire punishment. As for the average run of pagans, they had to be careful to not have the smell of incense around their homes. A small price to pay.

Chili

Lucky people, sooner in heaven and they got to choose their own recipe to get there.

Sheshbazzar

Yep. Always a good Catholic priest/head chef on hand for the community barbecue, holding up his magical juju sticks, and assisting them along their way, ecstatically singing hymns to the beautiful music of their death screams.