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The Last Pagans in Christianized Roman Empire, V: An Intellectual Background

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2014

Abstract

In the paper the Christian intellectual background to the position of the last pagans in the christianized Roman Empire is considered. Basic religious freedom, as maintained by Radomír Malý to have been even practiced, was advocated only by the authors of the earlier period of persecution of Christians.

Opinions of the later church fathers on dealing with the last pagans differ only if violence should or should not have been involved in the process of christianization. This observation seems compatible with the conclusions drawn in the previous papers of the series, that the last pagans can be said to have had to face the persecution, which however from various reasons could not have been as efficacious as intended, thus implicating eventual practical toleration from time to time and place to place.