Failure of the Church

In his encyclopedic Later Roman Empire , A. H. M. Jones explains that the church after Constantine failed to transform ordinary social behavior and culture not because it was too lax but because it was too rigorist. Ordinary Christians felt they couldn’t live up to the standards, and responded by delaying baptism to their deathbed or retreating into monasteries.

Little direction was given to Christians in civil service: “Pagan philosophers down to the end of the fourth century produced countless works on the virtues and duties of kings. Christian writers have nothing to say on this topic, and but little on the duties of the citizen. For the most part they are content to repeat a few texts inculcating obedience to the authorities and payment of one’s taxes.” Into the fifth century, the church was doubtful about “very elementary points” of public ethics: “Good Christians . . . were made to feel that they were, if not sinners, falling short of the highest ideals, if they entered public service.”