In article , lsenders{at}hotmail.com says...
>
>Matthew Johnson wrote:
>
>> >after all, it was invented by a pagan emperor
>> >named constantine, no?
>>
>> No. Where _do_ you get your misinformation? He was no pagan, as he
>showed by
>> BANNING pagan sacrificed within the city limits of his new capital,
>> Constantinople.
>
>Well lets be honest here.

I would be glad to see this change from you, Loren.

>  Constantine embraced what would unify the
>state.

Yes, he did. But he did much more than this. More immediately relevant, if that
had been his _sole_ motive, Christianity would have been a highly irrational
choice for him, since it was still very much a minority religion when he
'legalized' it.


>  He banned pagan sacrifices and temple attendence but did not
>ban paganism expressly.

And _why_ would he? Do you really believe that the apostate Julian understood
religious freedom, but the sainted Constantine did not?

>  How could he?  He never made Christianity the
>state religion.

Nor should he have.

>   Julian's restoration of freedom to worship what you
>will betrayed the fact that paganism was still alive and well.

Here is where _you_ betray how poorly you know the history. Paganism was dying,
but still could not admit it to itself. That is why when the apostate Emperor
Julian went to Antioch, he was _expecting_ to be greeted by crowds of pagans
rejoicing at their freedom, but was greeted by only a couple of aged pagan
priests, who had no cow to sacrifice, but had to offer their own goose instead!

The Christian majority in Antioch _shunned_ the apostate Emperor!

>It was
>Theodosius I who made Christianity the exclusive religion of the state
>in 380 and was so recognized officially in 395.  However, paganism was
>not erased until 529 when Justinian closed the school of philosophy at
>Athens.

And even _that_ did not 'erase' it. But from that point on, pagans could no
longer hide from the fact that their influence in history was ended.


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