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1 results

  • 17 - The church, society and political power

  • from Part III - Christian Culture and Society
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 403-428

  • Summary

    In Caesaropapism there are two distinct entities, a secular state and a spiritual church, each with its own defined sphere of authority. The problem arises when the secular ruler, Caesar, asserts authority over the church, acting thus like a pope. Eusebius was a bishop and Agapetus a deacon. Both represented an institution, the Christian church, with an identity akin to that of the Roman senate. The judgment of emperors, the decision as to whether they were to be remembered as heavenly icons or wild beasts, now lay with the clergy. Moreover, Christianity's unique development in the first centuries of its existence had left this institution with a capacity for acting and behaving independently such as senators had not known since the closing days of the republic. The suppression of traditional religions in the new Christian empire is the point at which the church, society and power, intersect.