Corruption in the Church

 

Corruption in the church? How can that be? One can understand there is corruption in the secular field, in the Government, among politicians and bureaucrats, but corruption in the church? Sounds oxymoron! To understand this phenomenon I decided to dig a bit deeper.

The first three centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the nascent church struggled for existence. In the beginnings Jews persecuted the Christians, due to jealousy and aversion of including Christians in the family of God. To a Jew God is his exclusive property and they were not willing to share it with the Greeks and other non-Jews who claimed to be Abraham’s children by faith in Christ. They were not willing to extend the privileges they enjoyed under the Roman rule to the Christians.

Then the local pagan population started to oppress the Christians, for in their eagerness to show their loyalty to the Roman rulers, the conquered populations including Greeks, erected statues of the Caesars and instituted temple worship for them, even though the Emperors themselves were reluctant in the beginning to get such worship from their subjects. But the subjects were keener to address the Caesar as their Lord, and expected the Christians to play along to show their loyalty to the Emperor. Unfortunately a Christian could only call the resurrected and glorified Christ as Lord and they refused the worship of Emperors. It was taken as a mark of disloyalty to the Roman Empire and the local population persecuted them. Many lost their livelihood as the guilds had their own patron gods and celebrations were held in their honor and the Christians refused to participate in these revelries. This further angered the local population and they made life hard for the Christians.

Very soon the Romans caught up with the game. There were periodic and violent persecutions launched by the emperors themselves, starting with Nero in 65 AD. Peter and Paul lost their lives in this mayhem. It was followed by Domitian in the 90s. This could be the time when Revelation (Apocalypse) was written. These were sporadic and limited to the local areas. Empire wide persecution was launched by Decius in 250 AD and Valerian in 253 AD. Properties were confiscated, titles stripped off, and lives lost. Romans could not understand the traditions of Christians like eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood. Population spurred the rulers saying neglect to worship Graeco-Roman gods will bring their wrath and disasters on the Empire. Loyalty to the State religion was demanded from them. When it was not forthcoming persecution followed.

When Constantine came to power the tide turned. Edict of Milan in 313 AD put an end to persecution of Christians and permitted them to worship their God without molestation. Under Emperor Constantine the persecuted religion became the most favored religion and very soon would become the State religion. In all these three centuries the Christian population was poor, without a voice in the government, hated and were looked down upon. There was no corruption among them, for what was attractive in a religion whose adherents were persecuted and lost their livelihood, properties and even lives? Only the genuinely faithful were sticking to Christianity, but, with Constantine things began to changes. Bishops became powerful and started to imitate the power and prestige of the Roman Emperors and the governors. The exclusive purple of the royalty came to adorn the bishops as well. Corruption and misrule and entered into the church slowly but surely. Still majority were true Christians and many bishops like St. Augustine fought against heresies that tried to corrupt the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. They succeeded in halting this effort of heretics to corrupt the New Testament Scripture and in 390 AD in Synod of Milan, the Apostolic Creed was accepted by the Church, which we still proclaim in our churches.  

The Western Roman Empire fell under attacks by barbarians; Alaric, king of Visigoth in 410 AD, sacked the city of Rome. The last emperor who was a puppet was deposed by Odoacer, a leader of Germanic origins, who assumed the title of Emperor in 476 AD and the Western Roman Empire was completely wiped off. The empire itself was divided and ruled by many barbaric kings who had invaded and succeeded in establishing their rule. Roman rule continued in the East as Byzantium with Constantine as its capital for another thousand years, but it fell in 1453 AD conquered by Ottoman Turks. The period between fifth century AD when Western Roman Empire fell and fifteenth century AD when Eastern Roman Empire fell is generally known as Dark Ages. The light of the cultured and the unifying power of Roman Empire was extinguished and barbarians ruled the land.

The fate of Christianity also changed drastically with changes in the political scene. Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, but the empire was still mainly pagan. In 391 AD Theodosius banned much of paganism, public sacrifice and even private worship of images (idols). Justinian (527-565 AD) banned pagan cults, enforcing baptism on pain of confiscation and execution. The tables had turned now and it is the turn of Christians to persecute the pagans who still worshipped the Graeco-Roman gods!

There were five prominent Episcopal Sees in the Roman world by fifth century. Roman See being in the seat of power of the Empire became preeminent and tried to rule over the other Sees, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. By 661 AD Muslim Arabs had overridden Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, which lost their pre-eminence. Constantine in 330 AD shifted the capital of Roman Empire to Constantinople built on old Byzantium. The main rivalry now on would be between Roman and Constantine Sees, which led among other reasons to the East-West Schism in 1054 AD. In due course history will witness the Roman See becoming Catholic Church and the Constantine See becoming more of Greek Orthodox Church.

Well history apart, let’s see how corruption crept into the church once the Western Roman Empire fell and Roman See started to become pre-eminent. As the Roman Empire became more and more anti-pagan and pro-Christian, the church grew not only in power and prestige, but also in wealth due to pious gifts. By fifth century the church had an elaborate structure, hundreds and thousands of clerics, more than the civil administrators and grew in power. The church by 500 AD was the largest local landowner and had become partners with the emperors and administrators of the secular world. Because of its independent organization, Church survived the political fragmentation of the fifth century. The stable Roman See looked as if it represented the Roman Empire! Still in the fifth century Christian piety, its charity works, and beginnings of ascetic life all could be evidenced. But Bishops imitated victory procession of the emperors and started their own formal processions between urban churches as a show of their power and prestige.

With the fall of Western Roman Empire, the Roman aristocracy also dwindled in power, prestige and landholdings. Some went into military service under the conquerors. Aristocrats started to look to the episcopate for a career. In a political world that was falling apart, the church was standing solid. The conquering barbarians took up the estates of the Roman aristocrats. The only alternative left was church. In Gaul (modern France) for the first time aristocrats became bishops. The church was rich in landed property and so it was attractive for the aristocrats who had lost their lands to get into the church and become leaders to dominate these properties. For the first time, clerics and bishops entered the church for reasons other than piety. Conversion and spiritual experience of the soul were not given any importance. Being a bishop sometimes became a retirement option, but mostly a good career choice, when the choice was between swordsmanship and Bible. Gregory, Bishop of Tours in Gaul (538-594 AD) was an active political bishop, also a historian. By seventh century, rich aristocrats who owned land founded monasteries to keep the land under their control. Bishops by this time were overwhelmingly aristocratic, often leading a military lifestyle, keeping armies. Monasteries were closely associated with the aristocratic families who founded them and even less depended on the bishops of the jurisdiction.

By the seventh century the king was appointing the bishops and bishops had to represent their cities politically. Bishops developed local autonomies, called ‘Episcopal republics’ and had to attend the court offices along with their secular counterparts, the counts. He has to keep abreast with the latest political affairs to survive. In the city of Rome when its senate faded away in the late sixth century, popes emerged as the authority best equipped to rule Rome, as recoded in the writings of Pope Gregory the Great in the 590s. In the eighth century the entire imperial infrastructure in Rome steadily became papal. Bishoprics were wealthy and had more elaborate infrastructure and hierarchies than the Roman kingdoms. They were power brokers among the divided kings and their coteries, as did Pope Gregory II (715-731 AD). Under Charlemagne in the ninth century, the state and the semi-autonomous church were knit in a tight partnership, which became a norm the West for the next two centuries.      

Well, we have seen now how church came to be infested with money minded and career oriented political clerics. No wonder as in the secular world corruption and intrigues of power entered the church. We still need to see how corruption increased during the Middle Ages and finally led to Reformation. But this in the next blog!

Till then, good bye. Wishing you all a very happy and God's grace-filled New Year. Amen.