Edict of Thessalonica — Christianity Becomes the State Religion
Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire by edict in February 380. The edict of Thessalonica commanded all peoples under his rule to follow the faith held by the bishop of Rome and by the bishop of Alexandria, described the adherents of it as Catholic Christians, and declared everyone else demented and insane and liable to punishment. The target was not paganism in the first instance but Arianism, which had dominated the eastern court for much of the century and which the Gothic peoples on the frontiers had adopted. The Council of Constantinople in 381 confirmed the Nicene formula and gave the capital's bishop precedence after Rome. The measures against traditional religion followed over the next decade: sacrifice prohibited, temples closed or destroyed, the altar of Victory removed from the senate house in Rome over Symmachus's celebrated protest, the Olympic games ended, and the Vestal Virgins disbanded. The Serapeum at Alexandria was destroyed by a mob in 391. Theodosius also submitted to public penance for eight months in 390 after ordering a massacre at Thessalonica in which some 7,000 people were killed in the circus in reprisal for the lynching of a garrison commander — Ambrose of Milan refused him communion until he did. That episode is the first case of a bishop successfully disciplining an emperor, and it was cited for a thousand years. He was the last man to rule both halves of the empire. The empire went from persecuting Christians to persecuting everyone else in under eighty years. Julian's attempt to reverse it in 361 had lasted eighteen months, and after 380 no serious restoration was attempted anywhere in the Roman world.
- Year: 380 CE
- Category: Political
