Christianity may be seen as the rabble's revenge on the world. The destruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD caused the "Great Diaspora of the Jews", and the seeds of Jewish eschatology they harbored would transform into Christianity in the future. The seeds of these ideas first took root in places far away from Rome, places we have encountered before in other eras, such as in the cities of Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia, Phoenicia, and Egypt. . Christianity gradually began as a hidden Jewish religion in Judea. Although later Christian writers have tried their best to exaggerate and modify, in fact we still don’t know what early Christianity looked like, because neither the Jews nor the Romans seemed to have a particularly strong interest in this religion at that time. interest. Nero conveniently used Christians as scapegoats to take the blame for the fire that destroyed much of the city of Rome in AD 64. Nero probably did this because he felt that Christians were irrelevant and no one cared about them. The Roman populace did, in fact, feel deep pity for the Christians, but this was more due to the horrific manner in which they died than to any genuine sympathy or knowledge of their faith. Those Christians were burned as human torches, covered in animal skins and torn to pieces by wild dogs.
What seems clear is that Jesus, an uneducated but charismatic Jew from Galilee, served as a religious leader during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius (14 AD to 37 AD). A considerable number of followers have gathered among the Jewish compatriots. Jesus' activities eventually attracted the attention of JerusalemJewish elites, who were wary of Jesus' popularity and lobbied the chief magistratePontius Pilateto have Jesus put on trial, where he was treated as a man in his 30s Common criminals were executed by crucifixion. The story of Jesus is certainly not an isolated incident in Judea in the first century AD. Other prophetic religious figures from Galilee also attracted large numbers of followers and eventually led to conflicts with Roman authorities or acting kings, the most famous of which It would be John the Baptist. What really makes Christianity stand out is that Jesus’ messianic claims did not disappear with his death. The most important thing is that Christianity gradually focuses on persuading Gentiles to believe in Christ, which means that Christianity is not just another Jewish religion. Paul of Tarsus was an important figure in expanding the influence of the sect. Not only had he been raised as a member of the Jewish elite, but his status as a Roman citizen also made him an unusual convert to Christianity. Paul set about taking the fledgling religious group in an ambitious new direction. He began an extensive missionary work in Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, with exciting results. By the time Paul died in his sixties, the religion, although still weak, was well established in many of the large cities in those areas. Most of the members of the newly created Christian community were pagans, mainly craftsmen. Perhaps it was the hostility that Christians faced from all sides—first from the Jewish elite and then from the Roman authorities—that allowed the faithful to organize themselves so well. They have a clear hierarchy and strong leadership from bishops and clergy. The Christian community had a philanthropic spirit that made it particularly attractive among the poorer classes of Roman urban society. Poor people always have a good impression of those kindhearted people who reward food and help bury the dead.
While many religions coexisted quite harmoniously throughout the empire, Christianity differed in other ways in its development of identity. First, Christianity has a strong sense of community, united by a complex set of beliefs about irrefutable truths understood by the Messiah and the select group of leaders who followed him. But what really pushed Christianity onto the path of defying Rome was Christianity's hostility to pagan activities. This gesture was inflammatory, for those pagan practices were the glue that helped hold the empire together.But there is only one Supreme God, and Christians are opposed to other people's gods and are unwilling to play the Roman games. Take Tertullian as an example. This person was a Christian who lived in Carthage from the late 2nd century AD to the early 3rd century AD. (Carthage was rebuilt by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC and became a major African city under Rome and an important center of early Christianity.) Tertullian is regarded as the first person to use Latin Christian saint who wrote books. He urged the faithful to stop attending athletic games and not going to theaters because the scenes performed there were all evil and related to pagan gods and religious rituals. Tertullian ordered female believers to wear veils and avoid gold jewelry. He praised chastity, calling it the most blessed state of life for Christians. For Tertullian, original sin lurked in almost every corner of the Roman city. Although later Christians considered him somewhat crazy, Tertullian's views were more representative than the usual labels. The Romans tolerated other people's views if they suited them, but the early Christians developed an intolerable lifestyle in which they prided themselves on humility and sacrifice.
Persecution soon followed, often not by imperial authorities but by locals. The authorities are often involved reluctantly. We can clearly see from Tertullian's writings that the effect of persecution was only to make Christians more determined and unyielding towards the Roman Empire . His sarcastic narration is full of gunpowder.
If the water level of the Tiber River is so high that it submerges the city walls, and the Nile River is too low to irrigate the fertile fields; if the world is torn apart and the sky is covered by dark clouds; if famine spreads across the land and plague is raging... then the cry will immediately sound. : "Christians rise up against the 'Lions'!" What? All Christians? Dealing with a "lion"?
Christians clearly feel that they are always to blame for everything. For Tertullian, Rome was the " Babylon Apocalypse" predicted in the "Book of Resurrection". It was drunk on the blood of Christ's martyrs and forgot about it. Tertullian was a well-educated Roman citizen, a lawyer, and the son of an army officer. The country had long relied on individuals like him, but Tertullian's writing revealed a different view of the country. Such a sense of alienation. Other ideas he used to firmly oppose imperial worship came from the New Testament, from Jesus' witty answer to the thorny problem of paying imperial taxes, namely, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and the things that are God's." To God”. Officials in the Roman Empire would hear this response frequently for centuries to come.
In fact, compared with the local provincial elites, the imperial authorities had long been quite indifferent to the persecution of Christians. Pliny the Younger wrote endless letters to Trajan, one of which asked Trajan for instructions on how to deal with the Christian problem in his province of Bithynia. The emperor advised Pliny the Younger that Christians should not be exterminated, but should be given as many opportunities as possible to return from their lost ways. Facing the increasingly powerful Christianity, the Romans were struggling to cope, because traditionally, as long as others respected the empire, the Romans would not care about which gods they believed in, but this old-fashioned way of doing things could not fool these fanatics at all. Christians are more interested in the afterlife than they are in the here and now.
In 203 AD, the most horrific massacre of Christian martyrdom broke out in the Colosseum of Carthage. This arena is one of the largest in the empire, able to accommodate 30,000 spectators. The emperor at the time, Septimius Severus, launched a campaign of persecution against Christians and issued a decree prohibiting imperial subjects from becoming Christians. There was a woman named Popetua who converted to Christianity. She came from a wealthy pagan family. It was unusual for her to be a Christian with such a social status. Perhaps this sense of class violation made this story One of the reasons for its notoriety.The woman was only 22 years old and was breastfeeding her baby when she was suddenly arrested along with other Christians, including her pregnant servant Felicitas. Poppetua resisted strong pressure from his family and the authorities, refused to renounce his faith, and was sentenced to death in the Colosseum. During his time in prison, Popetua, like many martyrs, had many "hallucinations." Some of them claimed that Popetua's immediate martyrdom would not only help heal the pain of his family, but also bridge the divisions within the wider Christian community. Others, however, made it clear that what Popetua would face in the arena was not a fight with a wild beast, but a real confrontation with the devil himself. At the same time, however, Felicitas became increasingly anxious that the impending birth of her child would delay her martyrdom. However, two days before the start of the competition, the baby girl was born, which meant that Felicitas' wish for martyrdom was not in vain. The baby was later adopted by a female Christian. On the day of the games, Popetua and Felicitas were brought into the arena naked. The crowd protested as Felicitas' lactating breasts were still leaking milk. The woman was then taken out of the arena, and after being covered, was taken out again. After a period of whipping, the two women were trampled by a bison. They were seriously injured and in great pain, but still alive, and were later killed by a swordsman. The gladiator's hands trembled, and Popetua had to guide him so that he could finally slit her throat.
Despite these horrific stories, not many Christians were actually martyred until the 3rd century AD. Decius and later Diocletian, two of the most efficient and reform-minded emperors of the time, became increasingly concerned with the spread of the religion, which seemed to undermine many of the fundamental principles and policies on which the empire was built. The cultists rejected the sacrifices of imperial worship, and both emperors exploited this opposition to root out the unrepentant fanatics. Decius issued an edict in 249 AD calling for a nationwide imperial worship and sacrifice event within the empire, a move that quickly earned him a reputation among Christians as a spokesman for the Anti-Christ. The state assigned local officials to implement the decree and issue documents certifying that specific individuals had performed the sacrifices. In order to obtain such a certificate, many relatively wealthy Christians resort to bribery or hire someone to offer sacrifices in their name; while poorer Christians face a simpler and clearer choice, either. Lose your head or sacrifice. Thousands of people gave up their principles, and only those who truly preferred death to surrender finally resisted to the end.
For those who are determined to resist, martyrdom is not a punishment but a reward. In these Christian martyrdoms there is a striking contrast between the horrific violence inflicted on the body and the uplifting spiritual state of the martyrs. There is naturally some strong element of revisionist propaganda in such a story, but even the evidence from the time suggests that there was a widespread belief that the act of martyrdom was accompanied by some kind of psychosomatic mentality. Some Christians see themselves as athletes out to defeat Satan in the arena, and glorious martyrdom is a form of victory. The Christian Church spread these horrific stories of martyrdom throughout the country and recounted them at Christian gatherings. Far from destroying the Christian church, the persecution made it stronger.
On February 23, 303 AD, Diocletian launched a so-called "Great Persecution Campaign". He ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures, the banning of liturgical books, and the demolition of places of worship throughout the empire. Christians also lost their legal rights. Religious senators members, knights and other elite groups were deprived of their titles and positions. However, this phenomenon itself showed that Christianity at that time had begun internal erosion among the imperial nobility. In fact, Diocletian His wife Plisca is a Christian. Diocletian intended to restore Roman virtue by revitalizing traditional religious practices, just as Augustus had done three centuries earlier.Diocletian and the rest of the "Four Emperors" closely linked the well-being of the empire to the people's continued worship of traditional gods. It was for this reason that any threat to the safety of the empire was All religions are treacherous. In the years that followed, Diocletian and his successors used various policy measures against the Christians and introduced a more draconian legal system, which they later interrupted with amnesty. Nothing they did could stop the rise of Christianity.
Later on October 28, 312 AD, a major event in the long history of the Roman Empire broke out. The armies of two rival emperors among the "Four Emperors" fought on the Milvian Bridge in Rome. The war later proved to be decisive. Constantine won the battle, but his opponent Maxentius fell into the Tiber River and drowned. He was dragged by his heavy armor. Go down. This war marked the beginning of the end of the "four emperors" system founded by Diocletian. At the same time, Constantine suddenly emerged as the sole ruler of the Roman world. But what is truly monumental in all of this is that Constantine would lead the greatest religious reformation in the ancient world. The Battle of Milvian Bridge will change the previous confrontation between the Church and the Empire, and will be declared by the world as a turning point in the balance of power between the two sides.
Before Constantine and his soldiers won the decisive victory in the war, they saw a cross in the sky. After that, Constantine declared that he had believed in Christianity. However, some say that what they are actually seeing is nothing more than a solar halo. But Christians at the time were confident that this was a sign of God's support for Constantine, the first emperor worthy of "leaking the secrets" of Christendom. In 313 AD, Constantine issued an edict of pardon, which finally granted Christians throughout the territory the freedom to engage in religious activities and restored previously confiscated property and assets belonging to the church. In 325 AD, with the end of the protracted civil war, Constantine took control of the country. The emperor made generous gifts of land and money, projecting a great deal of influence, and the fortunes of the Christian Church seemed to have undergone a dramatic transformation.
In Rome, a series of magnificent and beautiful churches were built one after another. This is of great historical significance to Christianity, because it is said that the first bishop was St. Peter. Christian bishops were now included in the emperor's inner circle of staff. Their influence can be seen in the numerous moral and religious reforms initiated by Constantine. The clergy were freed from the burdens of official duties, and the bishops were granted judicial privileges. Laws against adultery and encouragement of marriage were strengthened. At the same time, Christianity's zero tolerance for other beliefs and activities began to be noticed, and some revered pagan temples were closed. Christians had long accused them of immoral activities, especially those related to Related to the festival of Eros Aphrodite . In addition, other laws prohibited sorcery, divination, and certain ritual killings.
There is a huge question mark as to why Constantine suddenly embraced Christianity. But for Christians the answer was clear: the emperor was a true believer. The idea of using the popularity of Christians as a political expediency can certainly be ruled out, because as of 312 AD Christians accounted for less than 10% of the Roman Empire's population, and most did not come from any powerful religion. Power class. The problem, however, is that Constantine waited until just before his death to be baptized. It would be difficult to argue that he desperately wanted to become a true believer. We have no conclusive evidence as to whether Constantine was a truly pious man or a sophisticated Machiavellian. Considering that Constantine's personal devotion to faith moved rapidly between many different gods, it is surprising that the man maintained an interest in Christianity for a long time, but in comparison we may It's easier to answer this question.The answer is simple. Constantine destroyed the carefully constructed system of "four emperors" and replaced it with a ruling model that dominated the world. For such a figure, Christianity's uncompromising monotheistic views are bound to have a strong Appeal. From now on there will be an era of one emperor and one god. After becoming the sole master of the entire empire, Constantine soon gave a speech comparing monotheism with polytheism in heaven and on earth. He stated frankly its dangers:
Monarchy It is absolutely far superior to any other type of political system and form of government, because democratic equality, which is diametrically opposed to it, is in fact nothing more than anarchic chaos. This is why there is only one God, not two, three or more.
Although the Christian church has sharply criticized secular empires before, they are obviously very good at adapting to this new and greatly improved environment. Church leaders were more than happy to claim that Constantine's rule was divinely ordained, as if a partnership had been brokered, or at least sanctioned, by Providence.
These new connections between the Christian church and the Roman state, however, immediately came under pressure. It soon became clear that Christianity's influence on Constantine was limited. The emperor was willing to lavish money and resources on the church, but anything that might loosen his grip on power was completely out of the question. This is very clear from the issue of imperial worship. Constantine seems to still believe that this traditional religion is very useful, completely ignoring the fact that pagan beliefs are contrary to the core principles of Christianity. In the mid-4th century AD, as Constantine's reign was coming to an end, he approved a citizen petition from the Italian town of Sisperen, allowing the people to build a temple in his name and that of the royal family, with the additional An important condition is that no killing or sacrificial activities are allowed inside. It's classic Constantinian nonsense, trying not to alienate anyone too much while furthering a cause that maximizes his own leadership. In this way, the local people had their own religious activities, and the Christian Church gained the satisfaction of prohibiting sacrifices. It was a lasting compromise, and when archaeologists work in late pagan temples and shrines, they often find broken eggshells surrounding objects of worship, the last polytheistic followers of Ingenious practices to offer a bloodless sacrifice to their gods.
Ongoing quarrels within the Christian Church were the greatest source of tension between Constantine and the Christians. It did not take long for Constantine to realize how important these seemingly obscure theological views were to his new allies. To make matters worse, there appears to be no agreement at all among the wider Christian community on what constitutes orthodox faith. There has been a heated debate over whether the Father, , the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the same person or hierarchical entities. Constantine, who saw himself as God's mortal representative in religious and temporal matters, was determined to bring an end to the tumultuous dispute and ordered the bishops to find a compromise. In 325 AD, he convened the Council of Nicaea, which reached a resolution that almost all the bishops signed. But if Constantine thought that this was the end of the doctrinal infighting, he was sadly mistaken. In the blink of an eye, none of the many factions was satisfied with the outcome. The imperial intervention not only set a dangerous precedent, but also greatly raised the price tag of the Christian doctrinal debate, with both sides eager to borrow the imperial legal code and its often harsh rules. Punishment comes by criticizing each other. Equally serious, those who were failing within the imperial legal system grew to resent what they saw as the emperor's unlawful intrusion into religious matters.
The tension between the Christian church and the Roman state finally reached the peak of the crisis in the 480s after decades of intensification. Ironically, this happened during the reigns of two of the most devout Christian emperors, Gratian and Theodosius.The main driving force of the Christian camp was Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, an extraordinary and outstanding man who joined the hierarchy of the Christian Church in his later years after a successful career as a councilor and city magistrate. This man was energetic, knowledgeable, and unafraid to bargain with the emperor. After all, he once served as a teacher to a certain emperor. Ambrose firmly believed that the Christian church was God's senior representative on earth, not the Roman emperor. If the emperor interfered in church affairs without the express permission of the church leaders, he would be violating his authority. However, even within the jurisdiction, the emperor's actions should be strictly limited, and he could only use secular law to implement church decisions. Emperors in the past often interfered in church affairs on a whim, and Ambrose's remarks would obviously pit himself against the emperor. The public stage for the power showdown between the bishop and the emperor was in Milan, the imperial city of the empire.
Round 1: The little emperor Valentinian II ’s mother Justina was an Arian believer, a follower of a branch of Christianity that did not win the Council of Nicaea, but It survived and flourished several times in the intervening decades. The emperor asked Ambrose to give one of the churches in his hands to the Arians, but the other party bluntly refused, so Valentinian mobilized the army. Undeterred, Ambrose locked himself and the congregation in the church, creating an unusual confrontation. Imperial officials rushed to the scene one after another, trying to break the deadlock, but Ambrose stood firm and made a desperate move. He suddenly raised the stakes in the battle and tried hard to play the card commonly used by Christians:
Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. , Give to God what is God’s. The palace belonged to the emperor, while the church belonged to the bishop. The authority you are given can only be used in relation to public secular buildings, not religious buildings.
In the face of this clear and straightforward warning, Valentinian's position obviously wavered. The risk was not only a clean break with the church, but also a break with God himself. Valentinian hesitated at first, and then ordered the withdrawal. There would henceforth be no Arian church in Milan under Ambrose.
Round 2: Ambrose is not only strong-willed but also cunning and sophisticated, turning his hands into clouds and turning his hands into rain, while Valentinian is just a young boy who loosely controls his imperial dynasty forever. They are no match for someone like Ambrose. Theodosius, who ruled the eastern half of the empire, was no ordinary person. This man was a shrewd and capable man, a gifted manager and soldier, and he was also known for his devout Christian faith. The collision between these two formidable characters would become the most famous battle in early Christian history. In 390 AD, Theodosius' commander in Thessalonica was lynched by a local mob, so he ordered a massacre in Thessalonica. 6,000 people were lured on the pretext of watching a game. to the arena. They were immediately massacred upon arrival. Although there is no denying the brutality of this move, the process was open and compliant, and it was a case closed for public order. The severity of his treatment was often used habitually by later emperors to control their restless subjects. What made this case unique, however, was that Thessalonica was a city with a majority Christian population, and even though the case was completely outside Ambrose's purview, he felt he had to respond. Ambrose excommunicated the emperor himself from the ranks of the Christians. In perhaps the most appalling confrontation between a Roman emperor and a Christian bishop, Ambrose openly refused to administer the sacraments to Theodosius and even banned him from the church congregation.
Ambrose was a smart expert and knew that opening a door for his royal master, a permanent separation would not benefit anyone after all. In a letter to Theodosius, Ambrose gently suggested that anger was a disease of the soul that could only be cured by Christian penance and penance.This view was accepted, and over the next few months the citizens of Milan would witness an extraordinary spectacle of the emperor himself: the most powerful and feared man in the Roman world taking off his imperial robes and publicly confessing his sins. The emperor repented wholeheartedly, felt grateful, and was readmitted to the church. Yet even at this point, Ambrose made sure that every citizen understood that Constantine's model of the emperor speaking for God was over:
He (Theodosius) tore his hair, banged his head, and shed tears Wet the ground and prayed for God's forgiveness. When it was his turn to bring the offering to the altar, Theodosius stood up and approached the sacred place, still weeping. However, the powerful Ambrose once again told him to pay attention to the location. Ambrose said: "Your Excellency, the temple is only for priests and is not open to other people. Please move and stand where everyone is standing. Place. The purple robe can make you an emperor, but not a priest. "
The emperor may be the most powerful person in the world, but in God's religious place, he is just another ordinary believer. Ambrose's famous victory over imperial power would be reinforced by a new generation of Christian intellectuals eager to rethink their relationship to the Roman state and the entire mortal world. Among these theologians there was a man of great genius, indeed one of the wisest of the early Christian churches, who was baptized by Ambrose himself in Milan.
Augustine was born in a moderately wealthy family in the town of Tagaste in North Africa. His life path followed the steps of previous provincial talents: he received a good education in the capital Carthage, and then went to Milan to obtain a good position as a professor of rhetoric. For a time in his early years, Augustine was interested in Manichaeism, a forbidden religion from Syria. However, while in Milan, he fell under the charm of Ambrose. After being baptized, Augustine decided to give up his promising career and return to North Africa to join the Christian Church. This decision would forever change his own life and Western Christendom.
Inspired by the power of the example of Saint Anthony , Augustine wanted to quietly live a poor life in a small Christian community in Tagaste - full of monastic simplicity and meditation. This is a conscious retreat from the world, away from the world and the social stage that I once eagerly pursued. However, this situation did not last long. Augustine visited Hippo many years after returning to Africa. It was a busy port city with a large Christian community. One of the most fascinating aspects of the early Christian church is that many of the leading theologians eventually became bishops of small towns in the real world. Although Hippo was not a remote place, for someone like Augustine who lived and worked in Carthage and Milan For those who have lived there, Hippo is still too remote. When he was first asked to become Bishop of Hippo, Augustine was quite reluctant. In fact, he was almost "held hostage" by the congregation, who felt that Augustine was a hot commodity worth holding on to. Soon Augustine was preaching in churches, employing all the techniques and devices that had made him famous in Rome and Milan. Every Sunday, Christians in Hippo stood for more than two hours at a time, mesmerized by the words of the oratory superstar. When the old bishop died, there was of course no doubt who would succeed him. Only ten years after Augustine's conversion to Christianity, he was consecrated as Bishop of Hippo.
The job was no comfortable sinecure in a sleepy seaside town. Hippo, like much of North Africa, was in the midst of a religious war between Augustinian Catholics and Donatists. The Donatists are a Christian sect with strict beliefs. They believe that they are the true descendants of a large number of North African martyrs during the Great Persecution in the 3rd century AD. The fighting between the two sides is not only limited to verbal attacks, but also serious threats of violence between sects.Whenever Augustine visited places far outside his own diocese, he was always afraid of being lynched, and he often complained about this. Although such battles were enough to keep Augustine busy, it was the challenges ahead that would make his name in history.
In the late summer of 410 AD, shocking news reached Hippo. Rome had fallen to King Alaric and his Visigothic army. Rome has withstood two waves of sieges in recent years, but in August 410 AD the Visigoths came back for the third time. On the 24th of that month, the slaves opened the city gates, and the German army invaded like a tide, and then It was a three-day sack, and many of Rome's finest buildings were destroyed. The tomb of the great Augustus was looted, the urns in which he was buried were overturned, and the ashes of the emperors were scattered in the streets. In the following months, Hippo was filled with refugees from Rome. Their hearts were deeply traumatized by the fall of the city. Many people looked up to the sky and sighed: Why? Why did the greatest city in the world finally fall into the hands of barbarian army after 800 years? Many of the refugees are Christians, but even some among them have begun to speculate whether there is some connection between Emperor Theodosius's practice of expropriating paganism more than 20 years ago and this horrific incident today.
This statement seemed to Augustine so despicable that it made people furious. So he took active action, picked up his pen and plunged into the debate. Augustine wrote a proclamation, lashing out at Roman myths and legends, and compiled a history of the city from a Christian perspective that contrasted with the legends, depicting a period of "ups and downs" without any taboos, from the beginning of the good-hearted From the city’s founders to the decadent, selfish, money-oriented citizens of Augustine’s time. Augustine insisted that if Rome collapsed, it would be so. He delivered the final fatal blow to Rome, denigrating the very ideals for which Rome so passionately aspired, indeed to which all the great civilizations of the ancient world aspired. “Earthly cities” are all doomed to decay and eventual collapse because they were created by fallen human hands.
Augustine spent 13 years to complete his work "City of God". He believed that the construction of civilization was very fragile, and his evaluation was unparalleled in negative terms. For Augustine, there was little purpose and meaning to be found in the secular city; only the city of God provided humanity with these spiritual elements, which could only be accessed after death. Before the glorious deliverance, righteous believers should behave like "pilgrims" in the fallen human world, taking full advantage of the peace and tranquility that civilization provides, but be sure not to mistakenly think that this is something indestructible or enduring. Substantive things. Good men and women are just passing by in this world, and the technological, cultural and political achievements created by civilization are just stepping stones to the city of God, leading people to greater glory.
Yet behind Augustine's uncompromising words lies the inescapable truth that the Roman Empire still mattered, even to its eloquent detractors. The reason why they were able to defeat the Donatists and other Christian opponents was not only the "intense attack" formed by the letters, sermons and treatises written by Augustine, but also the result of the implementation of the imperial legal system-the state followed the law The churches of those denominations were closed, their clergy excommunicated and their congregants fined. In fact, Augustine and his fellow African bishops worked hard behind the scenes, lobbying imperial officials and reportedly bribing many.
It seems impossible that a figure as brilliant as Augustine could not have been aware of the great paradox that haunts his work. The eloquence and reasoning he used in "City of God" are so powerful, but they are not the result of studying the Bible, but are derived from the extremely expensive education at that time, which was full of The classical culture that Augustine endeavored to denigrate. From this point of view, this is simply a masterful scene of "repaying kindness with hatred".
The fact that when Augustine envisioned the Kingdom of Heaven, he was actually modeling his vision on the earthly city, is a powerful testament to the enduring relevance of urban civilizations that dominated the Near East and the Mediterranean for a millennium. .
