[172] _Stromata_, book vii., chap. xvi. [173] _Stromata_, book vi., chap. xvi. [174] _De Idolatria_, chap. xiv. CHAPTER IX. STATE RELIGION A PAGAN INSTITUTION. Christ’s Attitude toward the State--The Roman Conception of Religion as a Department of the State--Roman Civil Law Created and Regulated All Religious Duties--Effect of the Pagan Doctrine of Religious Syncretism on Christianity--The Emperor a Demi-God, Entitled to Worship, and, _ex officio_, the Supreme Authority in Religion--The Deep Corruption of Roman Morals and Social Life under Pagan State Religion. Three fundamental points at which Christianity was corrupted by heathenism have been examined. It remains to consider another which was not less fundamental, and has not been less persistent--viz., the _Union of Christianity with the State_. Christ’s Attitude Toward the State. Christ taught the infinite worth of man as an individual. The divine priesthood of every believer in Christ, and his absolute spiritual kingship over himself, under God, is a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. On such a platform, Christ proclaimed the absolute separation of Church and State. “My kingdom is not of this world” was the keynote in His proclamation. His kingdom knew neither Jew nor Greek, Roman nor Egyptian, bondman nor freeman. Ethnic distinctions and lines of caste were unknown to the world’s Redeemer. Wherever a heart bowed in simple faith and loyal obedience, there Christ’s kingdom was set up. Placed alongside the state-church theory of Rome, the doctrine of Christ’s kingdom was noonday by the side of midnight. It was a diamond among pebbles. It was the proclamation of a brotherhood all-embracing and eternal. This kingdom rendered unto Cæsar the little that was due him, and demanded the fullest and highest allegiance to the invisible but not unknown God. It sought only simple protection from the civil power, and patiently suffered wrong, even unto death, when this was denied. Such a kingdom found its first adherents among those who were least entangled in the meshes of the state religions, and whose hearts opened most loyal to the one God, and His Son, the Christ. These were naturally the common people, who heard gladly, and entered joyfully into the heavenly citizenship. Thus the Church of Christ, like Himself, was born among the lowly, and wholly independent of the state. Such a spiritual kingdom could not be brought under the control of the civil power, and that a pagan power, without being corrupted, if not destroyed. Roman Conception of Religion.