Byzantine History: Part 2 Formation of Christianity

Constantine brought a huge change into the empire; however, his desirs were not
meet
Constantine after his death divided his empire into 4 pieces just like the tetre
archy of his father between Constantine II, Constantius, Constans, and Dalmatius
. The important will be Constans and Constantius because both of them essentiall
y dominated the other two in battle of politics.
The important question that arose during this era was the Question of Christiani
ty because Christianity back then was very different than the Christianity now.
There were many different sects and each one were least torlerant to the other m
ore so than the pegan Romans.
Constantine obviously tried to fix this issue by convening the council of Nicea
in order to reconcile beliefs and make strict guidelines for who would be consid
ered heretics.
Those who didn't agree with the council were considered heretics and persecuted.
Very Ironic considering the fact that all of them were persecuted just 2 empero
rs ago, but many misinformed people would consider this a sign of intolerance, b
ut there were very good reasons such persecution.
1. Many Christian text contridicted each other. Litterally, there are more gnost
ic books in history of Christianity than the bible itself and the authenticity o
f each of them were at most questionable, because no Christians actually wrote t
he new testament until a couple of hundred years after Christ finally left this
planet. Early Christians thought the end of the world was near, but for got that
when God says somethings near it means probably 10000s of years near. So when C
hristians finally started writing down their teachings, it was confusing.
Now when we say heretics in Christianity we tend to think Oh difference between
Baptist and Presbiteryan. WRONG Heretics in those days were GENUINELY HERETICS.
Some believed an evil god made the earth, some believed in many gods including G
od, and the list goes on and on. In modern scale a heretic back then would be a
cult leader and as we all know, cults are BAD.
Not only that the Christians probably fell for the #1 Thing that falls on any ma
jor state religion, No liberty. Before Constantine, Christianity wasn't on the s
potlight and most Christains felt the comradary of being persecuted, but suddenl
y the spot light was on them and new converts who converted out of expiedency ar
e starting to mix.
Christians then suddenly realized that certain things are messed up and should b
e fixed sadly messed up things went from cult messed up to minor detail messed u
p which eventually devolved into open persecution for the stupidest reasons.
Still it wasn't the Christians fault because these things are natural when a sur
ge of converts suddenly show up without knowing what it means to be Christian an
d we'll see that in the next Chapter.