History of Christianity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Relations with polytheists==== Christians of the fourth century believed Constantine's conversion was evidence the Christian God had conquered the many polytheist gods in Heaven.{{sfn|Stark|1996|p=5}}{{sfn|Brown|1993|p=90}}{{sfn|Brown|1998|p=634}} This "triumph of Christianity" became the primary Christian narrative in writings of the late antique age in spite of the fact that Christians represented only ten to fifteen percent of the population in 313. As a minority, triumph did not generally involve an increase in violence aimed at polytheists β with some exceptions.{{sfn|Johnson|2015|p=xx}}{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=632β635}}{{sfn|Salzman|2006|pp=266β267, 272, 285}} In general, there was more violent rhetoric than actual violence.{{sfn|Bremmer|2020|p=9}} Constantine wrote the first laws against sacrifice. Thereafter, sacrifice largely disappeared by the mid-fourth century.{{sfn|Drake|1995|pp=3, 7}}{{sfn|Kahlos|2019|p=35}}{{sfn|Boyd|2005|p=21}} [[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]] notes that the language of these anti-sacrifice laws "was uniformly vehement", and the "penalties they proposed were frequently horrifying", evidencing the intent of "terrorizing" the populace into accepting removal of this tradition.{{sfn|Brown|1998|p=638}} Even so, polytheistic religions continued.{{sfn|Cameron|1993|pp=4, 112}} The fourth century historian [[Eusebius]] also attributes to Constantine widespread temple destruction, however, while the destruction of temples is in 43 written sources, only four have been confirmed archaeologically.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|pp=xxvii; xxiv}}{{refn|group=note| At the sacred oak and spring at [[Mamre]], a site venerated and occupied by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike, the literature says Constantine ordered the burning of the idols, the destruction of the altar, and erection of a church on the spot of the temple.{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|p=131}} The archaeology of the site shows that Constantine's church, along with its attendant buildings, occupied a peripheral sector of the precinct leaving the rest unhindered.{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=31}}{{paragraph break}} Sources on what happened to the temples conflict. The ancient chronicler [[John Malalas|Malalas]] claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples; then he said Theodisius destroyed them all; then he said Constantine converted them all to churches.{{sfn|Trombley|2001|pp=246β282}}{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=110}}{{paragraph break}}A number of elements coincided to end the temples, but none of them were strictly religious.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=82}} Earthquakes caused much of the destruction of this era.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=28}} Civil conflict and external invasions also destroyed many temples and shrines.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=xxvi}} {{paragraph break}} Neglect led to progressive decay that was accompanied by an increased trade in salvaged building materials, as the practice of [[recycling]] became common in Late Antiquity.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=2}} Economic struggles meant that necessity drove much of the destruction and conversion of pagan religious monuments.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=82}}{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|p=353}}{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=60}} In many instances, such as in [[Tripolitania]], this happened before Constantine the Great became emperor.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=29}}}} What is known with some certainty is that Constantine was vigorous in reclaiming confiscated properties for the Church, and he used reclamation to justify the destruction of some Greco-Roman temples such as [[Aphrodite|Aphrodite's]] temple in Jerusalem. For the most part, Constantine simply neglected them.{{sfn|Wiemer|1994|p=523}}{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=30}}{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|p=132}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page