4th century

Church and empire in the 4th century: Eusebius, Theodosius, Ambrose

Eusebius of Caesarea regarded the conversion of Constantine and the founding of a Christian empire as a natural stage of Christianity and presented the emperor as the earthly image of the Word, who leads his subjects to the Word and serves as interpreter of the Word of God; critics accused him of "baptizing" the Eastern conception of a "divine" monarch. Theodosius' edict Cunctos populos (380) required all peoples to profess the faith the Romans had received from the apostle Peter, and, according to Hall, Theodosius sought to identify Church and Empire. Ambrose of Milan, by contrast, introduced principles of the church's independence: "what is God's belongs to God, not to Caesar," "the emperor is within the church, not above it." In 390 he obtained Theodosius' public penance.