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View submission: Ante-Nicene “Orthodox” coercion?
The final part of your question is the more correct for the period before and during the 4th century. There was a degree of coercion available, but it was a bit different from the Theodosian era (379-395) and after. The early churches had no overall organizational structure. Bishops were elected by the individual churches, and to the extent that different house-churches came together in terms of practice and teaching, it was by consensus.
The earlier form of coercion was expulsion from a church. For example, Marcion (c.140) held the view that the Jewish God was a different entity than the God who was the father of Jesus. He had gone to Rome (reportedly with a lot of money) hoping to become a bishop there. He was soundly rejected, and went on to found his own churches, with their own institutional structures. Marcion was first condemned in writing by Justin Martyr (Apology 1.26) in the 150's, followed by Irenaeus (c.180) and Tertullian (early 3rd century), making Marcion the poster-boy for "heresy."
A case of attempted coercion occurred in the late 2nd, when the Roman bishop Victor tried to impose the Roman system of dating Easter on the churches of Asia Minor. They rejected this on the grounds that their own apostolic tradition was correct. Victor didn't have the clout to impose his will. In the mid-3rd century, several churches apparently appealed to the emperor to have Paul of Samosata removed as bishop of Antioch (260-268), based both on theological and corruption accusations. He was eventually ousted.
During the Arian Controversy of the 4th century, Athanasius of Alexandria was exiled 5 times, as theological opinions of the emperors and bishops in their inner circle shifted away from the postion stated in the first version of the Nicene Creed, after the death of Constantine in 337. Several regional councils were called proposing different credal formulations at Antioch in 341, Sirmium in 351, Rimini in 359, and Constantinople in 360. It was not until after the the Council of Constantinople of 381, called by Theodosius, that a revised Nicene Creed was enforced by the state. Initially, the penalty was loss loss of church and revenue for dissenting bishops. In the 5th century particular groups could be targeted, both within and outside of the Church, with potential penalties of loss of wealth and position, prison, or death.
The is not to say there was no violence before Theodosius. The office of bishop in Rome could be hotly contested by partisans of rival candidates. In 235, Pontianus and Hippolytus were both exiled from Rome by Maximinus for rioting during the election process. There were similar election disorders 306-308. Ammianus Marcellinus described the violence from the election of Damasus vs. Ursinus in 366 (*Res Gestae* 27.3). Peter Brown describes bands of fanatical monks in Egypt destroying what were considered to be "Origenist" monasteries the the late 4th century, and mob violence against polytheists in Alexandria.
Peter Heather, *Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion* (2023)
Chris Wickham, *The Inheritance of Rome* (2009)
Elaine Pagels, *The Gnostic Gospels* (1978)
Roger Collins, *Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy* (2009)
Charles Freeman, *A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Christian State* (2008); and *A New History of Early Christianity* (2009)
Peter Brown, *Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire* (1992)
Hamilton and Wallace-Hadrill, eds., *Ammianus Marcellinus: The Later Roman Empire, 354-378* (1986)
J. Stevenson, ed., *A New Eusebius* (1957)
Comment by Quadraticabacus at 20/01/2025 at 12:31 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This was very enlightening, I really appreciate your answer!