Christianity And The Roman Government

The rise of Christianity during the first four centuries of the common era was the pivotal development in Western history and profoundly influenced the later direction of all world history. Yet, for all that has been written on early Christian history, the primary sources for this history are widely scattered, difficult to find, and generally unknown to lay persons and to historians not specially trained in the field. In Christianity and the Roman Empire Ralph Novak interweaves these primary sources with a narrative text and constructs a single continuous account of these crucial centuries. The primary sources are selected to emphasize the manner in which the government and the people of the Roman Empire perceived Christians socially and politically; the ways in which these perceptions influenced the treatment of Christians within the Roman Empire; and the manner in which Christians established their political and religious dominance of the Roman Empire after Constantine the Great came to power in the early fourth century CE. Ralph Martin Novak holds a Masters Degree in Roman History from the University of Chicago. For: Undergraduates; seminarians; general audiences

Excerpt from Christianity and the Roman Government: A Study in Imperial Administration The origin of this little book, which is written from the point of view of Roman rather than of Christian history, may be explained in a few words. It was suggested by, and owes its existence to, an article by Professor Mommsen in the 'Historische Zeitschrift' of 1890, entitled, Der Religionsfrevel nach romischem Recht. The criticism of Professor Mayor and others on the insufficient and too hastily written essay on Pliny and the Christians in my edition of 'Pliny's Correspondence with Trajan' had led me to go into the subject with more thoroughness than I had hitherto given to it; and I was already convinced that on two points at least - viz. the importance of the Neronian persecution, and the connexion of Pliny's action in Bithynia with the government attitude towards collegia - I had followed quite erroneous views. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...if we assume its early date, being evidence for it.1 But, on the other hand, it was quite within their discretion to inquire into and punish specific charges, and in the early days, when Christianity was still a strange and unfamiliar appearance, they would be likely to do this, and any cases which Professor Eamsay may adduce out of the Pastoral Epistles would belong to this category. Indeed, this uncertainty of procedure, though more likely to occur in the early relations between government and Christianity, was apparently a characteristic of it all through. Tertullian complains that the whole matter was 'confessio nominis non examinatio criminis, '2 and yet he also says ' sacrilegii et maiestatis rei convenimur, '3 and maiestas was surely as specific a charge as could be made. But the language of Tertullian suggests a more important question than that of the precise date at which the 'nomen ipsum' became punishable--a question which, as far as I can judge, Mommsen's utterances both in the 'Historische Zeitschrift' and in the 'Expositor ' still leave a little uncertain--viz. whether those who were punished as ' rei maiestatis" were or were not punished for the name. To all appearance Mommsen answers this question in the affirmative. In the earlier article, after speaking of the conception of the Christian belief as in itself a capital crime, and quoting such well-known passages as 1 Peter iv. 15, and Just. 'Apol.' i. 11 in support of it, he goes on to say that this conception could not have depended on the edict of this or that particular emperor, but must have been grounded in the essence of the Eoman criminal law, and we can see from Tertullian--i.e. in the passage about maiestas--how it was juristically to be explained.i Still more...

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