If the fourth century, and usually present the movie does AGORA - as bad for the dying paganism, it was much more disastrous, in my opinion, for a Christianity that, even then, enjoyed a multifaceted and healthy variety of religions, worldviews, rituals, versions and perversions.
With insanity, in some cases accompanied by extreme violence, such as the lynching of Hypatia, or the beheading of Prisciliano-escalated in this century the systematic persecution of heterodoxy, on behalf of an alleged orthodoxy ... that was rather Orthopedic , judging by the rigidity of creeds and movements which strove to straighten God's ways.
And the fact is that, in principle, things did not look bad for religious freedom, with this progressive Edict of Milan, which at 313 promulgated:
"Having realized long ago that should not be inhibited freedom of religion, but should be allowed at the discretion and freedom of each exercise on divine things under the advice of his soul, we have sanctioned that both all else, the Christians, keep the faith and observance of their sect and religion ... So we have promulgated most exact criterion is healthy and our will, that to refuse any license at all or choose to follow enforcement and Christian religion. Rather it is lawful to each devote his soul to the religion that considers suit him. "
Tan beautiful ... as ephemeral. In 325, the great manipulator who was Constantine, was known to ally with Christian bishops who matched in ambition to convene the first ecumenical council at Nicaea. They gave birth to the famous symbol or Creed, which made it clear that, in matters of faith, at least so-called Christians, they could not afford any dissent or alternative formulation.
Unfortunately, things were getting increasingly ugly.
A point I've been back to pick on my dear enemy Cyril of Alexandria, by an error in the quotation raises Antonio Piñero, about the New Testament canon formation, where, despite the typo, excellent book ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY. Background and first steps (Editions Almond, 1991). Scholars are also wrong ... Where it says (p. 388): "So, Cyril of Alexandria in Catechetica ...", should read Cyril of Jerusalem. This one Cyril wrote in 347:
"Concerning the New Testament, there are only four Gospels, because the rest have false titles and are harmful. The Manichaean have composed a gospel also the name of Thomas, who, though steeped in the fragrance of the gospel, annihilates the souls of the simple . We also receive the Acts of the Twelve Apostles, and in addition, seven Catholic epistles, of James, Peter, John and Judas. And as a seal upon them the last work of the disciples, the fourteen Epistles of Paul. The rest has to be considered secondary range. Other books should be read in churches, nor in private as I have heard. "
Emphasis in bold is mine. Never ceases to amaze the exquisite perversion of this sensor, which has no problem confessing that the Gospel of Thomas is "permeated with the fragrance ( Euodia , lit. "Good odor") of the gospel "... but even so, it condemns.
As expected, from this moment, both the creators and translators, copiers, readers or holders of the texts of Nag Hammadi library, which include "buenoliente" Gospel of Thomas-no were all clear that they could continue with their reading and writing alternatives.
To overcome the doubts, twenty years later, in 367, Athanasius of Alexandria, who was accustomed to preach to the faithful the beginning of Lent and the exact date of Easter, he wrote his festal letter 39, to be read throughout Egypt:
"But since we have referred to the heretics as dead, we will refer to us as keepers of the holy scripture for salvation, and as I fear that will not to be, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians (II Cor 11.3), a few of the pure in their simplicity and ignorance can be fooled by the trickery of men, in what remains, to treat or bumping into others guide them, the so-called apocryphal, deceptive homonymy with real books, I also write, by way of remembrance, of matters that are current, influenced by the need and usefulness of the Church. "
and then provides a list of the canon of "divine scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.
At this point, our monks of Pachomius of Kenoboskion, upon receiving festal letter of Athanasius of spoilers, you'll probably think about getting rid of subversive material of these texts now, thanks to serendipity, make the library Nag Hammadi.
Thirteen years later, in 380, it got really bad for all unorthodox or dissenting opinion in matters of worship, whether Christian, pagan ... or-so. So I put the oil Edict of Thessaloniki , supposedly issued by Emperor Theodosius:
"We want all people who are governed by the administration of our clemency profess the religion which the divine Apostle Peter gave to the Romans ... computer that has the name Catholic Christians who follow this rule, while others judge them insane and crazy about that weigh the infamy of heresy. Their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches will be, first of God's vengeance, and then be punished by our own initiative we will take following the will of Heaven. "
That same fateful year, in the Zaragoza council, condemned the bishop Galician Prisciliano presumably dangerous for things such as reading Apocrypha celebrate mass dancing in a circle in the countryside, and attract a cult too many women ... Five years later, was beheaded Trier, defendant, of course, of maleficium ... Some authors as little suspicious of frivolity and Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz and Miguel de Unamuno argues that his remains are buried in Compostela, and from there on pilgrimages ... non è vero If, well trovato è ...
The fact is that a year later, in 381, the ecumenical council Constantinople editing and underpins the symbol Nicene Creed or . It seems they want to firm personnel and say something like: "Nonsense, the fair." As the tango, what lack of respect, what outrage to reason and faith ...! From that moment it seems that it became clear that being a Christian was to commune with the one-dimensional, and, indeed, quite incomprehensible and indigestible "perversion of the Gospel message to be recited in the Creed .
The following year, the most complete monastic solitude austere, if we except the company of some early dictionaries Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, Jerome began the titanic task of translating the Bible into Latin, ending in 405 and would be known as the Vulgate because, supposedly, was a vulgata editio, "edition for the people. " Incidentally, the name continues to be a mockery, it is well known that Catholicism has never had the slightest interest in that people have direct access to the scriptures. And if not, tell it to Luther, whose main demand was to translate the Bible into vernacular languages \u200b\u200bso that everyone can read the sacred texts without intermediaries. In any case, the Vulgate became the official text of the Church and would remain so until 1979.
At this time, St. Augustine and was making war, fighting heresies and suggesting some of the most daring and distinctive theological and anthropological concepts-how to reach to say that evil exists to be free, "that you where to look , not only led him to be condemned as a heretic, but he rose to the altar of holiness. Ultimately going to be true that God writes straight with crooked lines ...
But the story was not just lenient with other dissident and heterodox. The last decade of the century begins in 391 with the aforementioned Theodosian decree banning other religions, which led to the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria and made it clear that "nobody will go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples, or raise his eyes to statues created by man. "
With such beliefs, edicts and decrees, it is not surprising that the Christian monk St. Pachomius monastery was founded in Kenoboskion in 320, was to come up with their bones in the desert taking with them, tightly sealed in a vessel, that find treasure by chance in 1945 after Muhammad 'Ali al-Samman: Nag Hammadi Library.
Bad Times for pagans, yes, but also for heterodox Christians ...
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