The Rise and Fall of Christendom 2D - The Coming of the Priests

From the coming of Christendom through a period extending for more than a thousand years, most of the leaders of the Christian faith at one time or another carried the title of "priest." This continues today in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity. I do not want to disparage those individuals, many of whom were and are faithful followers of Christ. It would have been nearly impossible for them to serve without being set apart to a unique calling as a priest. When I was a youth, there was a priest who treated me with a kindness and Christian maturity that I did not exactly reciprocate. I still have a Bible he gave me. So I wouldn't want what I am about to write to be misunderstood as an expression of hostility toward anyone who is a priest. It's just that unfortunately, the creation of the priest as a church officer was a major error.

     A priest is an individual who serves as a mediator between God and man. In a religion with priests, it is not possible for a regular person to have direct access to God; it is necessary to go through the priest, or at least to have the priest perform some service to allow access. This role of the priest is well-defined in the Old Testament and was practiced in Judaism at that time (though not today) and is also reflected in many other religions in the world, including pagan and folk religions.

     However, the New Testament teaches that all believers are priests (1 Peter 2:4-9, Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). It teaches that Jesus himself is the Great High Priest who acts as a mediator between God and man and through whom man has direct access to the throne of God (Hebrew 4:14-16). The New Testament does not envision any role for a human priest as a church leader; church leaders were given different titles, such as elders, pastors, apostles, etc. but not priests.

     If it was merely a matter of a title it would not have been so bad, but priests under Christendom eventually did begin to serve in a role as a mediator between God and man, and this was a very bad thing. Forgiveness of sins required giving a confession to a priest. Rather than repentance, a priest could assign someone to "do penance." Eventually, the practice of indulgences arose, where forgiveness could be bought with money.

     The designation of some individuals as priest also led to a sharp hierarchy in the church which even many protestants that shook off the concept of priests have not been able to avoid. The church leaders became professional Christians, while the laity were merely amateurs. The amateurs did not feel required to be as committed as the professionals: they did not need to learn the Bible or practice the more advanced functions of the professional members of the faith. Conversely, professionals will usually not feel there is anything to learn from amateurs. This amateur/professional division was a factor in curtailing the missionary imperative that initially drove the spread of the faith. 

     The Protestant Reformation, beginning in 1517, served to undo some of the harm. In fact, the reformation even helped reform the Catholic churches to an extent, as indulgences and some other excesses are no longer practiced in Catholicism.

     It is not certain how much of a role Christendom itself served in the rise of the priests. Perhaps this was a historical development that would have happened even outside of a state church and its coming was just coincident with the rise of Christendom. But whether or not Christendom was the cause or whether it just happened at the same time, the office of a priest was a mistake.

The Rise and Fall of Christendom 2C - Lost in Church

Lost in Church

Though Christendom brought many blessings to the world, from a Christian standpoint, it also came with drawbacks. The most glaring drawback was the ease with which people could be in the church, yet lost. When Constantine had his legions mark their shields with the chi-rho symbol, all those soldiers became Christians – sort of. Officially. But did any of those men come to a sincere faith in Jesus Christ? A few? How many? Christendom created a new social structure in which everyone (except for the Jews) was judged to be a Christian, and sometimes even a church member, at birth. This identification was sealed by infant baptism. The situation was analogous to Judaism and Islam, where everyone born as a Jew is considered to be a Jew and everyone who is born a Moslem is considered to be a Moslem. Yet this kind of Christian identification based on a first birth is alien to the New Testament’s teaching. How many citizens of Christendom were actually born again? For a believer today, it hurts to even think about the question. Some evangelicals today consider the “lost in church” aspect of Christendom to be so serious that its fall is considered no great loss, since “they weren’t saved anyway.”

     The idea of Christian identification at birth is still present today, not so much in any Christendom-like environment, but among Islamic countries where Christians are a recognized minority. They were born in Islamic countries but they are not Moslems, therefore they are considered Christians. Whether or not they have a relationship with Christ is another matter altogether.

The Rise and Fall of Christendom 2B - Canon and Creeds

Canon and Creeds

During the earliest period of Christendom, agreement crystallized on which books belonged in the New Testament canon. In 383, Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome to translate the Bible into Latin, and Jerome’s work, the Vulgate, served as the primary Christian Bible for more than 1000 years. The Synod of Hippo (393) and the Synod of Carthage (397), convened by Saint Augustine, formalized the 27 books of the New Testament as scripture.

     Christendom gave authority to church councils which had an enormous influence in the shape of Christian doctrine over the ages. The earliest of these may have been the most important. The Council of Nicaea in 325 served primarily to slap down the heresy of Arianism, the idea that Jesus Christ was not fully divine. It endorsed the doctrine of the Trinity, a doctrine now held by Christian churches of all denominations. It says:

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the father; from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead. ; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.” [The Nicene Creed of 325, as amended by the First Council of Constantinople in 381]

     A second important creed, the Apostle’s Creed, would appear in 390, though its origins may have been earlier. It reads:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen [Translation by International Consultation on English Texts, Fortress Press 1970]

     The Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds have stood the test of time. Today, even church denominations that shy away from creeds, like the Baptists (who like to say “No creed but the Bible”), would generally consider denial of the tenets of these creeds as being out of bounds.

     The weight of Christendom lessened what had previously been a situation where numerous heretical views ran amuck. Christian missionaries eventually converted most of the Arians to Nicene Christianity. Christendom was less successful in combating errant teaching that had crept in before Constantine. Even before Christendom, veneration of Mary had begun, and by the 5^th century Christians were praying to Saints.

The Rise and Fall of Christendom 2A - Frogs Around a Pond

Early Christendom

The early days of Christendom were also the waning days of the Western Roman Empire. The migration of Germanic tribes into the Roman Empire was one of a number of factors weakening Rome. In the 5^th century the city of Rome itself was sacked successively by the Visigoths in 410, the Vandals in 455 and the Ostrogoths in 476, the last effectively bringing an end to the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital in Constantinople, would last for another 1000 years.

The fall of Rome to the Germanic tribes, as consequential as it was, did not bring an end to Christendom, as those tribes had been Christianized before the 5^th century. The Vandals and Goths were (for a while) Arians rather than Trinitarians.

     The geographic shape of early Christendom was unlike what it would later become. The geography of Christendom reflected that of the Roman Empire, and was thus largely built around the Mediterranean Sea. It was a Greek and Latin-speaking culture once described by Plato as “Frogs around a Pond.” Christendom included Rome, as it always would, and Constantinople, as it would for 1000 years, but it also included Antioch in Syria, where the disciples were first called Christians. It included Alexandria in Egypt, an important city for learning. It included all of the land of Israel, centered around Jerusalem. It included Hippo in modern Algeria, where Saint Augustine was born and several important church councils were held. It included Nicaea in Northwestern Turkey, where perhaps the most important Christian creed was developed. About 2/3 of early Christendom would eventually be wiped away by Moslem conquest, but that would not come until the 7^th century. Early Christendom did not at first include far northern Europe. Christianity did not become preponderant in Ireland until the 5^th century, Scotland by the 7^th century, Russian in the 9^th century, Poland by the 10^th century, and Scandinavia during the 9^th through the 13^th.

The Rise and Fall of Christendom 1D - Growth and Triumph

Growth and Triumph

Counterintuitively, persecution of the Christians did not seem to reduce their numbers or influence. In some instances, persecution may have fueled the growth of the faith. “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1). Apparently when the Christians scattered, they took their faith with them and spread it. The Christian population continued to grow, and Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity estimated that it was greater than 10% of the Roman Empire by the year 300.

     The Great Persecution (303 – 312) under Diocletian (286-305) and his successor Galerius (305-311) was the last and worst of persecutions prior to Christendom. It required churches to be razed, scriptures to be burned, and sacrifices to be offered to pagan gods. The persecution was reinforced with four separate edicts, and led to much loss of life. However, Galerius had limited influence in the western part of the Empire and enforcement of the edicts was uneven. By 311, on his deathbed, Galerius admitted the persecution had failed and issued the Edict of Serdica, or Edict of Toleration, bringing the persecution to a close. The death of Galerius and the struggle for succession lead to the war between Constantine and Maximius.

     Perhaps Constantine may have made the calculation that Christian support could be politically valuable. But whether by calculation or by divine vision, Constantine’s decision to align himself and his army with the Christian faith marked a sudden and fateful turn in the course of History. Christianity was no longer just tolerated, but was actually preferred, and had state support. In 321, Constantine made Sunday a day of rest for all citizens. He sent his mother, Helena, on a tour of the Middle East to identify and memorialize important Christian sites. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, consecrated in 335, survives to this day. Constantine’s son Constantius (330-355) was a Christian, though he promoted Arian Christianity. Julian II “The Apostate” (355-363), the last non-Christian emperor, briefly attempted to turn the clock back, restricting some Christian rights. These efforts were short-lived, and in 380, the Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica, making Nicene Christianity the Empire’s state religion. Christendom had arrived.

The Rise and Fall of Christendom 1C - Persecution

“And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” (Acts 8:1)

Carthage, March 7, 203 A.D.

Vibia Perpetua was led into the arena with her friend Felicity and three other Christian companions. Perpetua, a 22 year old wife and mother of a young son, was of noble birth. She had refused the opportunity to recant  - if she had done so, as her father had begged, she would have been spared.  In the arena, the five believers were first scourged by gladiators, then set upon by animals. Perpetua was gored by a wild bull, but still alive, a gladiator had the task to finish her life. The hand of the young man was unsteady, and Perpetua had to guide his sword to her own throat.

     Early Christianity was heavily marked by persecution. During the New Testament period described in the gospels and the book of Acts, persecution came mostly from Jewish sources, but as the faith spread to the gentile world, this quickly changed. Sporadic local persecution accompanied the Christians almost from the beginning, but it was the Emperor Nero who first made it more widespread. Needing a scapegoat to blame for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D., Nero chose to blame the Christians, and the ensuing persecution famously took the life of both the apostles Peter and Paul.

     The pagan Romans usually tolerated many religions within their borders under the condition that at designated times, every man must confess it: Kaiseros kurios – Caesar is Lord. Afterwards, a man could return to his regularly practiced religion. Christians wouldn’t do it, instead confessing Christos Kurios – Christ is Lord. The Christian refusal on this point was steadfastly and absolute, to the point of facing the arena rather than making the false confession. At various times and locales, the persecution eased and Christians lived what could be considered a normal life in the Roman Empire, but periods of persecution continually recurred. Even during times when Christians were not targeted on an Empire-wide basis, the local populations often blamed Christians for any disasters or misfortunes that occurred. The Christian apologist Tertullian complained: “They think the Christians the cause of every public disaster, of every affliction with which the people are visited. If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send its water up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence, straightway the cry is, “Away with the Christians to the lions!”” [Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, Oxford University Press 2004, pp. 313-314]

     Yet perhaps it would be incomplete to state that persecution was a feature of Christianity before Christendom. Indeed, persecution of Christians is a feature of Christianity outside Christendom. Historically and up through the present day, Christian persecution is prominent in Islamic countries, and the communist countries with an atheistic ideology have been notorious persecutors of Christians. Christians today may consider that religious persecution could someday become a feature of a post-Christendom world.