COMMENT / Daniel Reynolds
“The Edict of Thessalonica fundamentally transformed the late Roman empire”
Although the Edict of Thessalonica provoked no immediate change, its rulings fundamentally transformed the late Roman empire over the following century. Most importantly, it made religious belief a matter of law and offered one of the earliest uses of the term ‘heretic’. Differences of religious opinion and interpretation had existed long before AD 380, but the edict made heresy a criminal act. This did not just affect Christians who didn’t subscribe to Nicene Christianity, but also Jews and adherents to traditional Roman cults. Elites increasingly turned to Christianity as a way of legitimising their public status. Family structures, attitudes to sex and even calendars were also gradually adapted in response to the growing influence of Christian morality and social custom.
Christianity took hold in the empire’s physical spaces too. Temples dedicated to non- Christian cults were forcibly closed and eclipsed by the growing importance of churches in ritual and public life. Churches also became the focus of vast imperial building projects; and, as an institution, the church offered a rival avenue to power. Bishops, priests and monks became increasingly visible figures in matters of legal governance, public building and land management.
Crucially, these structures would outlast the breakdown of centralised Roman authority in the west in the fifth century.