2022年专八英语之欧洲文化 (4)

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　　II. Persecutions(迫害)of Christians in Roman Empire ★ ★ ★

　　n At first Rome paid little attention to the religion. They tolerated the Christians because they were regarded as a harmless sect of the Jews.

　　n Then two things became apparent as the movement spread:

　　n i. The Christians under no circumstance would worship any other god and refused even the conventional emperor worship of the deified Augustus which was required of all Romans;

　　n ii. The meetings of the Christians were secret and they refused to divulge to those not initiated into the sect the proceedings of their gatherings →rumor among the Roman populace that Christians met in secret assembly and ate the bodies and drank the blood of small children

　　n It was because of these two factors that Christianity was persecuted

　　n Persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities encouraged the spread of the faith and a change in its emphasis. "The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church." A cult(宗教仪式) of martyrs殉道者 developed, and even those who had not the heart for martyrdom themselves revered local martyrs, and believed in the miracles reported of them in their lives and of their relics after death.

　　P.S.: martyrs殉道者，殉教者，烈士：指宁愿选择去死也不愿放弃其宗教信条的人

　　n For simple and uneducated people, these martyr-saints supplied the place of older deities who had been credited with magical powers and gave them something closer than a remote majestic God and his crucified(处死：把…钉在或绑在十字架上处死) Son with which to meet the terrors and trials of the world.

　　III. The Fourth Century

　　n Of all the centuries of Christian history, besides that formative first century, it is the fourth that is the most important, for

　　n It was during the fourth century that the Christian religion became a tolerated religion, then toward the end of the century emerged as the State Religion of the Empire.

　　n The great breakthrough for the Christians came when the Emperor Constantine declared it a tolerated (legal) religion in his famous Edict of Milan in 313 A.D.

　　i. Emperor Constantine

　　n Constantine the Great (313-337) was born about 274 A.D. to the Roman general Constantius,, and his concubine Helena

　　n who was a Christian.

　　n In 305, Constantius was made the Augustus, the supreme ruler in the West.

　　n After his father’s death Constantine was elected as Emperor

　　n As he was leading his army against Maxentius who also claimed the title of Augustus, Constantine relied upon the counsel of his mother and prayed to the Christian God for a victory.

　　n The next day, they were victorious in battle. For this one act, Constantine granted freedom of worship to the Christians in the famous Edict(布告, 法令) of Milan(米兰), the Magna Carta of religious liberty.

　　P.S. Milan米兰：意大利北部一城市，位于热那亚东北。可能由塞尔特人所建，公元前 222年被罗马人占领，因其处于战略要地，自中世纪以来一直是一个重要的商业、金融、文化和工业中心。

　　n Seeing in it the hope of moral solidarity as well as the consolidation of the Empire, Constantine adopted a preferable attitude to Christianity. He was even baptized as a Christian upon his death bed.

　　ii.. Establishment as the State Religion of Roman Empire

　　n The emperors who followed Constantine continued pro-Christian policies.

　　n In 392 A.D., Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and outlawed all other religions.

　　n Christianity thus had changed from an object of oppression to the State religion of the Empire.

　　IV. Some Factors for Christianity’s Triumph(获得胜利)★ ★ ★

　　n Christianity emerged out of the Roman Empire. Since it was only one among many oriental mystery cults that sprang up in the East, how could it outstrip its rivals and the dominant religion in the Empire?

　　n i. Roman toleration

　　n ii. While intellectual philosophies of the Hellenistic world had a cold, intellectual appeal and did not involve the emotions of the people, Christianity offered consolation and hope for a better life, hence, appealing to the distressed masses.

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