I think the Bible has lasted so long because for so many years it was part of
government and to question it could result in death.
When was this the case ?
--
When Constantine had taken upon himself the office of lay bishop, and put the secular arm at the service of the Church, the laws against heretics became more and more rigorous.
But under the Christian emperors rigorous measures were enforced against the goods and persons of heretics. From the time of Constantine to Theodosius and Valentinian III (313-424) various penal laws were enacted by the Christian emperors against heretics as being guilty of crime against the State.
In some particularly aggravated cases sentence of death was pronounced upon heretics, though seldom executed in the time of the Christian emperors of Rome.
Theodosius is said to be the first who pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law was passed in 382. Heretical teachers were forbidden to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately; to hold public disputations; to ordain bishops, presbyters, or any other clergy; to hold religious meetings; to build conventicles or to avail themselves of money bequeathed to them for that purpose. Slaves were allowed to inform against their heretical masters and to purchase their freedom by coming over to the Church.
The children of heretical parents were denied their patrimony and inheritance unless they returned to the Catholic Church. The books of heretics were ordered to be burned.
The burning of heretics was first decreed in the eleventh century. The Synod of Verona (1184) imposed on bishops the duty to search out the heretics in their dioceses and to hand them over to the secular power.
(billyboyjohn) I think the Bible has lasted so long because for so many years it was part of government and to question it could result in death.
(Quester) When was this the case ?
(billyboyjohn) When Constantine had taken upon himself the office of lay bishop, and put the secular arm at the service of the Church, the laws against heretics became more and more rigorous.
But under the Christian emperors rigorous measures were enforced against the goods and persons of heretics. From the time of Constantine to Theodosius and Valentinian III (313-424) various penal laws were enacted by the Christian emperors against heretics as being guilty of crime against the State.
In some particularly aggravated cases sentence of death was pronounced upon heretics, though seldom executed in the time of the Christian emperors of Rome.
Theodosius is said to be the first who pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law was passed in 382. Heretical teachers were forbidden to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately; to hold public disputations; to ordain bishops, presbyters, or any other clergy; to hold religious meetings; to build conventicles or to avail themselves of money bequeathed to them for that purpose. Slaves were allowed to inform against their heretical masters and to purchase their freedom by coming over to the Church.
The children of heretical parents were denied their patrimony and inheritance unless they returned to the Catholic Church. The books of heretics were ordered to be burned.
The burning of heretics was first decreed in the eleventh century. The Synod of Verona (1184) imposed on bishops the duty to search out the heretics in their dioceses and to hand them over to the secular power.
Heretics (and others) were killed for their opposition to the Catholic Church ... not the bible.
In many cases the bible was the source of the so-called heresies.
It was through his reading of the bible that Luther was motivated to stand up against the Catholic Church, ... thus beginning the Protestant Reformation.
When government has been forced to make a choice between the bible and increased power ... the bible has always been discarded.