POCM > The Triumph of Christianity > The Triumph -- refuted

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the triumph of christianity

The guys with with the swords were too late to decide what "Christian" is

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"Let there be an end to poor scholarship and conspiracy theorizing." J. P. Holding, 7/6/2004

[the Roman Emperor] Mauricius (582- 602)… saw to it that pagans were brought before the courts 'in every region of the city,' ..."Some he managed to convert to Christianity, while many who resisted he carved up, suspending their limbs in the main street of the town."
[Ramsay MacMullen, talking about a time 450+ years after orthodox doctrine was established]

There's nothing like a poor sport who can't accept his losses. We have shown that it didn't take Constantine to establish the "right" Christianity -- contextually and evidentially, orthodoxy was clearly there first and with the most, and critics (especially a neophyte like Pikachu) will need to do better than announce conspiracies and whinge about the sword to dispute this.

Constantine: The Scapegoat
It was hardly "pagan" for Constantine to respond to a dream; Jews had been doing it since Joseph in Genesis. There's no need to say much about what follows in Pikachu's list; yes, Christianity often had the sword on its side, but that isn't mutually exclusive to having the truth, unless you beg the question.

A few corrections are in order here, though. There was no "coercion" yet; Constantine actually "watched over the heathen worship and protected its rights."

Constantine also did "suppress divination and magic" as Pikachu says, but in so doing only mimicked prior pagan emperors.

Yes, by mid-century, pagan temples were indeed ordered closed. But no one paid attention or enforced it. Orders to close pagan temples tend to be repeated a lot.

The 356 AD law which made worship of non-Christian images became a capital crime, as my pal Venerable Bede (a Ph. D. student in Byzantine history) notes, only applied to sacrifices and repeat offenders. And, we have no record of anyone actually being executed.

Don't take the claim that in 385 Christians tore the great and famous temple at Edessa to the ground...vandalizing, looting mobs, or the quote by Libanus seriously. As Bede notes: He was a famous pagan teacher for whom we have thousands of letters extant (so much for Christians destroying all pagan literature) and he is frequently very rude about Christianity. How much we can take his words seriously is a matter of debate but he certainly did have a bee in his bonnet that his own old religion was rapidly being superseded.

"...there is no such thing as 'robbery' for those who truly possess Christ." [Libanius, Or. 30.9f] One of the real reasons that Christianity succeeded is stated in an illuminating passage by the pagan Emperor and friend of Libanius, Julian the Apostate. In his own diatribe against Christians, written about 360AD, Julian complains bitterly that whereas as followers of Jesus look after the poor and ill, pagans are put to shame by their own lack of charity.

399 AD was truly a year of "widespread destruction of pagan temples throughout the Roman world". However, as Bede notes: The laws against temples were reenacted so often that modern scholars now believe that no one was taking any notice. Without any police, it was impossible to enforce laws like this. The large number of temples still standing around the Roman Empire, to this day, testifies to the rather relaxed attitude of the population to them....In August 399 a law is enacted to destroy all temples but is immediately revoked (twice) by laws saying that temples are imperial property and must not be damaged once idols had been removed. It seems that once the building was no longer used for pagan worship, it was to be preserved for other uses. Simple vandalism was not to be tolerated.

"Who does not see how much the worship of the name of Christ has increased." [St. Augustine, Civ dei 18:45] Hmph. Funny how the pagans didn't seem to be too cowed. The year 408 saw riots insitgated by the pagans of Calama, in which the bishop Possidius nearly lost his life and Augustine was one of several bishops present. The riots were instigated by pagans wanting to reinstate pagan festivals, and the pagans also wrecked the church as a reaction In other words, the pagans could dish it out, but they couldn't take it.

Pikachu has more quotes from later centuries, but we need not pay them any attention. This is all well past the time when doctrine would be established.

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